This is based on https://supercharge.info and lists the hops between Tesla Superchargers that are the longest on routes which are ostensibly complete and have no real alternates. Despite my car having rated range of 260 miles, I find that 210 is about as far as I dare go in flat country in nice weather if I've fully charged the car, and 160 is about as far as I dare push it if it's hilly or the weather is bad, or I don't want to charge through the full taper, which takes over an hour.
172 Centralia-Ellensburg, WA Tacoma and Snoqualmie Pass in the way. way too far
170 Burlington-Ellensburg, WA Seattle and Snoqualmie Pass in the way. way too far.
165 The Dalles, OR-Centralia, WA. Sandy, OR, which is a bit out of the way, opened in late 2015
158 Eureka-Ukiah, CA. Hilly. too far without a 100% charge or in bad weather.
151 Burlington-Centralia, WA Seattle is in the middle so traffic might create a problem.
147 Barstow-Needles, CA
147 Kingman-Flagstaff, AZ
146 Lincoln City-Bandon, OR. Fairly flat
144 Gallup-Albuquerque, NM
138 Springfield-Grants-Pass, OR. Uphill southbound
I can't find any routes in the east that push these limits. There are routes which are not yet completed, but I don't count those here. See: Suggested Supercharger Locations II, and Interstates and Superchargers.
(A central problem with EVs is that the infrastructure is still being built. It's about where the petroleum infrastructure was in 1915 or so. If you're driving a gasoline car on paved roads, there are very few places in the US where you need to worry about finding a gas station within about 10 miles. With an EV, there are still plenty of places with NO place to charge for hundreds of miles. You need to stick to known routes. When you're close to home, EVs are vastly better than gas cars. But long trips are a problem.
101 between Eureka and Ukiah is particularly frustrating, because it's near the limit of the car on a good day. The very few J1772s and 14-50s are often closed. Something needs to be built in Garberville or Leggett.)
addenda 8Apr2017 A new and very large supercharger is under construction in Monroe, WA, near the intersection of US-2, WA-522 and WA-203. This is not too bad an option for people headed from Burlington to Ellensburg, although it's clearly meant for people going from Seattle to Stevens Pass and points east. There's a proposal for an I-605 that would bypass the Seattle area and use the routes of US-2, WA-203 and WA-18. It's a good idea, but political will for such projects died with the November 1980 election. The existing roads don't meet Interstate standards, but 18 and 2 are not far from it. 203 is largely through rural floodplain and would need a dike or elevation, and southern part would need to be re-routed to bypass Fall City and Snoqualmie Ridge.
19 January 2017
16 January 2017
Going to the Moon
The last man to have stood on the Moon, Gene Cernan, died today at 82. Our goals as a nation, as a species, seem to have changed since he climbed back onto the lunar lander in 1972.
When I was a kid, the plan was to launch ever increasing explorations into space--first low earth orbit, then the moon, then perhaps permanent manned space stations, ultimately to include Mars and other planets, along with the asteroid belt. It was presumed that we'd have hundreds or even thousands of people permanently in space by the start of the 21st century. Just look at the vision of the great movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That didn't happen. It turns out that the space program was largely a byproduct of the military's quest for ever more powerful weapons. The boosters used to put men into orbit in the Mercury and Gemini program were re-purposed ICBMs and the vast majority of things actually put into for the first 30 years or so of space flight were spy-in-the-sky stuff, like the KeyHole orbiting cameras. Even the first planned space station, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, was really a spy satellite and when robots fulfilled the things capabilities, it was cancelled.
But there are commercial purposes to space. Weather and communications satellites are extremely valuable. There is science that can be done better in space than on the ground--the space telescope and robot missions to other planets are illustrations. There is enormous mineral wealth up there too. It's much easier to get stuff from space, even from the asteroid belt, onto the earth than it is to get stuff up there. It's easier yet to use it up there. The time will come, I believe that a large fraction of our satellites will actually be built in space. Nearly everything we need is there--but not the people to do the work.
Robots do a lot of things well, but they need a guiding hand. And that hand cannot be more than a tiny fraction of a light-second away, lest the latency overwhelm the control. The only way to build a satellite in space is for at least some of the workers to be up there. This means permanent occupation. I think the way to do it either to do a rotating ring style space station, or even an O'Neill cylinder. They are impractical much smaller than about 1000 foot diameter (where 1.2 RPM would give 1/4rd G). A cylinder 1000 feet in diameter and 100 feet long would have 31,400 square feet of bottom floor space, and would probably be built 10 floors deep or so which probably means a population of a hundred or so. That's a big thing.
The moon is almost as good and has some advantages. The moon's gravity well is 1/6th what the earth's is, which means it takes a lot less energy and fuel than getting off of earth. Unfortunately, there's no atmosphere to slow landings, so landing takes just as much energy as taking off. But as SpaceX has been demonstrating, computers are getting pretty good at this. Most of the people will need to live underground, to protect them from radiation, but there's no shortage of material. The biggest problem is water. But there's lots of oxygen, lots of silicon with which to make solar panels, lots of metals, etc. The weakest link is hydrogen, which may be available in the minerals, but may be difficult to extract. And there are so many advantages to building satellites on the moon that it's hard to imagine we won't eventually do that.
We can also build gigantic space telescopes and radio telescopes, completely free from atmospheric and radio interference, by simply building them on the far side of the moon. Who knows what else?
When I was a kid, the plan was to launch ever increasing explorations into space--first low earth orbit, then the moon, then perhaps permanent manned space stations, ultimately to include Mars and other planets, along with the asteroid belt. It was presumed that we'd have hundreds or even thousands of people permanently in space by the start of the 21st century. Just look at the vision of the great movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That didn't happen. It turns out that the space program was largely a byproduct of the military's quest for ever more powerful weapons. The boosters used to put men into orbit in the Mercury and Gemini program were re-purposed ICBMs and the vast majority of things actually put into for the first 30 years or so of space flight were spy-in-the-sky stuff, like the KeyHole orbiting cameras. Even the first planned space station, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, was really a spy satellite and when robots fulfilled the things capabilities, it was cancelled.
But there are commercial purposes to space. Weather and communications satellites are extremely valuable. There is science that can be done better in space than on the ground--the space telescope and robot missions to other planets are illustrations. There is enormous mineral wealth up there too. It's much easier to get stuff from space, even from the asteroid belt, onto the earth than it is to get stuff up there. It's easier yet to use it up there. The time will come, I believe that a large fraction of our satellites will actually be built in space. Nearly everything we need is there--but not the people to do the work.
Robots do a lot of things well, but they need a guiding hand. And that hand cannot be more than a tiny fraction of a light-second away, lest the latency overwhelm the control. The only way to build a satellite in space is for at least some of the workers to be up there. This means permanent occupation. I think the way to do it either to do a rotating ring style space station, or even an O'Neill cylinder. They are impractical much smaller than about 1000 foot diameter (where 1.2 RPM would give 1/4rd G). A cylinder 1000 feet in diameter and 100 feet long would have 31,400 square feet of bottom floor space, and would probably be built 10 floors deep or so which probably means a population of a hundred or so. That's a big thing.
The moon is almost as good and has some advantages. The moon's gravity well is 1/6th what the earth's is, which means it takes a lot less energy and fuel than getting off of earth. Unfortunately, there's no atmosphere to slow landings, so landing takes just as much energy as taking off. But as SpaceX has been demonstrating, computers are getting pretty good at this. Most of the people will need to live underground, to protect them from radiation, but there's no shortage of material. The biggest problem is water. But there's lots of oxygen, lots of silicon with which to make solar panels, lots of metals, etc. The weakest link is hydrogen, which may be available in the minerals, but may be difficult to extract. And there are so many advantages to building satellites on the moon that it's hard to imagine we won't eventually do that.
We can also build gigantic space telescopes and radio telescopes, completely free from atmospheric and radio interference, by simply building them on the far side of the moon. Who knows what else?
05 January 2017
Weapons Inspectors in Iraq
Here's the timeline of weapons inspections in Iraq, with their context and a focus on how various administrations dealt with it. I'll keep refining it.
1953: in one of its very first operations, the CIA leads a coup to overthrow the popular leader Mohammad Mosaddegh with their puppet, Reza Shah Palavi. The justification for the US involvement in the coup was that Mosaddegh had been making treaties with its neighbor to the north, USSR. In fact, the problem was that he had been nationalizing the resources of the Anglo-Persian oil company. A-P was renamed a few years later to British Petroleum and later BP.
1959: USSR begins helping Iraq build nuclear power system
1968: Saddam Hussein is a leader of the coup that takes power in Iraq. Initially not its main leader, he gradually assumes control until in 1979 he was "elected" president.
Saddam had supported the development of gas WMD for years.
1979: After 26 years of repression by the puppet regime the US and UK had installed in Iran, religious extremists overthrow the government, capturing the US embassy there.
1980-1988: Iran and Iraq go to war, Iran with weapons supplied during the long US/UK occupation, Iraq with Soviet weapons. Iraq uses poison gas weapons. Because of the recent hostility with their longtime ally Iran, the Reagan administration sides with Iraq. The war ends in stalemate.
1990: Saddam's diplomats ask Bush's diplomats if they have any objections to clarifying certain border questions with Saudi Arabia. They say no, thinking it was an unpopulated desert area.
Aug 1990: Saddam invades Kuwait, capturing it in a few days.
Jan 1991: Huge coalition recaptures Kuwait and its oilfields, proceeding into southern Iraq, but stops after 100 hours, leaving Saddam in power. Saddam is forced to accept several concessions, including the permanent installation of UN weapons inspectors, but he hassles them constantly, and he brutally put down rebellions while occupying soldiers were watching, but helpless to do anything because they were not violations of the naive treaty the coalition and Saddam had worked out. Numerous WMD sites are found and destroyed.
Aug 1998: forces led by Bin Laden truck bombed two embassies in africa, killing over 200, including 12 americans, and injuring over 4000.
A few days later Clinton sends cruise missiles to Al Qaeda facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan, supposedly missing Bin Laden himself by less than 5 minutes.
Congressional republicans scream that the response was all about deflecting attention from the Lewinsky affair
Sept 1998: Emboldened by these republicans, Saddam raises increasing barriers and threats to the UN weapons inspectors, who had been there since 1991, eventually forcing them to leave for their own protection.
Dec 1998: Clinton responds by sending cruise missiles to Iraq, destroying several actual WMD sites that had been found.
republicans respond the same way, even more vehemently this time.
Oct 2000: Al Qaeda bombs USS Cole in Yemen.
Clinton sends the FBI but was too intimidated to bomb the obvious culprits again just a few weeks before the election.
Jan 2001: Terrorism adviser Richard Clarke warns about Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
Apr 2001: CIA director Tenant warns the same thing. Wolfowitz and Rice poo pooh the warnings and Clarke is demoted
July 2001: Clarke insists there will be a "spectacular attack very soon"
Aug 2001: CIA tells Bush that "Bin Laden determined to strike US"
Bush replies thanks, you've covered your ass.
Sept 11 2001...
CIA and special forces mount a relatively effective campaign in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda flees to Pakistan where US military can't follow.
Nov 2002: a new crop of inspectors are sent to Iraq.
The bulk of the resources in Afghanistan are moved to prepare for attacking Iraq, long before the job was complete there.
Feb 2003: Cheney and Bush pressure Colin Powell to present a fraudulent case before the UN
Mar 2003: Bush orders the inspectors removed from Iraq. When their leader, Hans Blix, complained that their work was not complete, Cheney threatened him. consequently Blix stayed silent until his inspectors were safe, but wrote a book about it.
Blix had believed that there were weapons, but the information the Bush administration gave him was useless and much was obviously fraudulent. the CIA had repeatedly said that this was likely the case and that the information was obtained from untrustworthy sources. Cheney had given this same bogus information to Powell.
The except for the initial coup in 1953, the CIA actually comes out of this whole thing looking pretty good. they're dealing with a lot of information, much of it from dubious sources. Gingrich, Lott, Bush, Cheney, Tenet, Wolfowitz and a few others were the culprits.
1953: in one of its very first operations, the CIA leads a coup to overthrow the popular leader Mohammad Mosaddegh with their puppet, Reza Shah Palavi. The justification for the US involvement in the coup was that Mosaddegh had been making treaties with its neighbor to the north, USSR. In fact, the problem was that he had been nationalizing the resources of the Anglo-Persian oil company. A-P was renamed a few years later to British Petroleum and later BP.
1959: USSR begins helping Iraq build nuclear power system
1968: Saddam Hussein is a leader of the coup that takes power in Iraq. Initially not its main leader, he gradually assumes control until in 1979 he was "elected" president.
Saddam had supported the development of gas WMD for years.
1979: After 26 years of repression by the puppet regime the US and UK had installed in Iran, religious extremists overthrow the government, capturing the US embassy there.
1980-1988: Iran and Iraq go to war, Iran with weapons supplied during the long US/UK occupation, Iraq with Soviet weapons. Iraq uses poison gas weapons. Because of the recent hostility with their longtime ally Iran, the Reagan administration sides with Iraq. The war ends in stalemate.
1990: Saddam's diplomats ask Bush's diplomats if they have any objections to clarifying certain border questions with Saudi Arabia. They say no, thinking it was an unpopulated desert area.
Aug 1990: Saddam invades Kuwait, capturing it in a few days.
Jan 1991: Huge coalition recaptures Kuwait and its oilfields, proceeding into southern Iraq, but stops after 100 hours, leaving Saddam in power. Saddam is forced to accept several concessions, including the permanent installation of UN weapons inspectors, but he hassles them constantly, and he brutally put down rebellions while occupying soldiers were watching, but helpless to do anything because they were not violations of the naive treaty the coalition and Saddam had worked out. Numerous WMD sites are found and destroyed.
Aug 1998: forces led by Bin Laden truck bombed two embassies in africa, killing over 200, including 12 americans, and injuring over 4000.
A few days later Clinton sends cruise missiles to Al Qaeda facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan, supposedly missing Bin Laden himself by less than 5 minutes.
Congressional republicans scream that the response was all about deflecting attention from the Lewinsky affair
Sept 1998: Emboldened by these republicans, Saddam raises increasing barriers and threats to the UN weapons inspectors, who had been there since 1991, eventually forcing them to leave for their own protection.
Dec 1998: Clinton responds by sending cruise missiles to Iraq, destroying several actual WMD sites that had been found.
republicans respond the same way, even more vehemently this time.
Oct 2000: Al Qaeda bombs USS Cole in Yemen.
Clinton sends the FBI but was too intimidated to bomb the obvious culprits again just a few weeks before the election.
Jan 2001: Terrorism adviser Richard Clarke warns about Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
Apr 2001: CIA director Tenant warns the same thing. Wolfowitz and Rice poo pooh the warnings and Clarke is demoted
July 2001: Clarke insists there will be a "spectacular attack very soon"
Aug 2001: CIA tells Bush that "Bin Laden determined to strike US"
Bush replies thanks, you've covered your ass.
Sept 11 2001...
CIA and special forces mount a relatively effective campaign in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda flees to Pakistan where US military can't follow.
Nov 2002: a new crop of inspectors are sent to Iraq.
The bulk of the resources in Afghanistan are moved to prepare for attacking Iraq, long before the job was complete there.
Feb 2003: Cheney and Bush pressure Colin Powell to present a fraudulent case before the UN
Mar 2003: Bush orders the inspectors removed from Iraq. When their leader, Hans Blix, complained that their work was not complete, Cheney threatened him. consequently Blix stayed silent until his inspectors were safe, but wrote a book about it.
Blix had believed that there were weapons, but the information the Bush administration gave him was useless and much was obviously fraudulent. the CIA had repeatedly said that this was likely the case and that the information was obtained from untrustworthy sources. Cheney had given this same bogus information to Powell.
The except for the initial coup in 1953, the CIA actually comes out of this whole thing looking pretty good. they're dealing with a lot of information, much of it from dubious sources. Gingrich, Lott, Bush, Cheney, Tenet, Wolfowitz and a few others were the culprits.
04 January 2017
All the -stans
"-stan" is the Farsi or Urdu suffix that means roughly "place of", or "place where one stands". There are presently 8 countries that end with this suffix, all in central Asia. All but two were part of the Soviet Union until its breakup. Pakistan (and its relative, Bangladesh, which was once called "East Pakistan") were the Muslim areas of Britain's India colonies at the time of partition in 1947. Afghanistan managed some level of independence through the "Great Game". Dagestan is still a Russian subject.
Afghanistan is a country in south central Asia, between Iran and Pakistan
Dagestan is a subject country of Russia in south western Asia, east of Chechnya and Georgia, and north of Azerbaijan, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea
Kazakhstan is a country in central Asia, north of India the Caspian Sea, and south of Russia
Kyrgyzstan is a country in south central Asia, along part of the border between Kazakhstan and India
Pakistan is is a country in south central Asia, between Pakistan and India
Tajikistan is a country in south central Asia, between Kyrgystan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan is a country in south central Asia, between Uzbekistan and Iran, on the southeastern Caspian Sea
Uzbekistan is a country in south central Asia, between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan
In addition there were many regions that are now part of a larger country that were "stan". Nuristan is a province in eastern Afghanistan. It was once called "Kafiristan" and Kipling wrote about it in "The Man Who Would Be King". Balochistan is a region which lies in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's very arid, and is the home of a great deal of insurgency.
The Registan is the public square at the center of Samarkand, Uzbekistan
The Rigestan Desert is in southeastern Afghanistan
Rigestan is also a town in southwestern Iran
Afghanistan is a country in south central Asia, between Iran and Pakistan
Dagestan is a subject country of Russia in south western Asia, east of Chechnya and Georgia, and north of Azerbaijan, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea
Kazakhstan is a country in central Asia, north of India the Caspian Sea, and south of Russia
Kyrgyzstan is a country in south central Asia, along part of the border between Kazakhstan and India
Pakistan is is a country in south central Asia, between Pakistan and India
Tajikistan is a country in south central Asia, between Kyrgystan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan is a country in south central Asia, between Uzbekistan and Iran, on the southeastern Caspian Sea
Uzbekistan is a country in south central Asia, between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan
In addition there were many regions that are now part of a larger country that were "stan". Nuristan is a province in eastern Afghanistan. It was once called "Kafiristan" and Kipling wrote about it in "The Man Who Would Be King". Balochistan is a region which lies in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's very arid, and is the home of a great deal of insurgency.
The Registan is the public square at the center of Samarkand, Uzbekistan
The Rigestan Desert is in southeastern Afghanistan
Rigestan is also a town in southwestern Iran
01 January 2017
Sustainable Rates
Conservatives are fond of pointing out the hypocrisy of protesting oil drilling in plastic (made from oil) kayaks or protesting logging while living in wooden houses. For purposes of argument, I'll ignore the nonsensical disconnect and pretend that it's a credible point.
Wood is potentially a sustainable resource. If you harvest it at a rate lower than can restore itself, there is no direct risk from logging. For much of the 20th century, this was indeed what was practiced, but by the 1960s, demand had exceeded capacity. Especially in the 1980s under the Reagan/Watt regime, a high fraction of the old growth lumber in America was harvested and sold off, a huge part of it to the far east.
Total worldwide consumption of wood today is about 4B cubic meters. There are about 4B hectares of forest in the world (down from 5.9B before industrialization. We've been losing about 13M hectares/yr). Canadian forests contain about 432 cubic meters per hectare. Extrapolating that to the whole world, if we were to harvest 1 cubic meter per year per hectare, the forests would thus have 432 years to recover. My forester friend tells me that if we harvest 10% or less every 15 or 20 years, that can be carried on indefinitely without harming the forest ecosystem--that's more than double that 1 m^3 per hectare rate. But that's not what we're doing. We mostly clear cut, in patches of a few hectares at a time, and during the '80s, we basically clear cut alternate quads, leaving a patchwork of tiny forests. This will recover eventually, but it'll take hundreds of years, and in the meantime, we've wrecked the local ecosystem, which will make it take longer to recover than necessary. Worse yet, we're permanently clearing areas for agriculture, industrial and residential use.
Lots of privately owned forests are harvested sustainably. We know it can be done. We need for the government to protect our public forests this same way.
Total proven oil reserves are about 1.3T bbl. Consumption has roughly tripled in the last 50 years, from about 11B bbl/yr in 1965 to about 33B bbl/yr today. This suggests that the total amount of oil that was theoretically available at the start of the 20th century was about 2T bbl. That oil took about 200M years for the earth to make. 2T/200M = 10,000. So a sustainable rate for oil is about 10,000 bbl/year. We are consuming it at 3 million times that rate.
World coal production is about 8B tonnes. The best guesses I can find say we can keep this up for about another 100 years, which suggests that there are just about 1T tonnes left and there were probably about 1.5T to start with. Like oil, hard coal takes around 200-300M years for the earth to create. That means we can sustainably harvest about 5000 Tonnes per year. But there's a difference. Soft coals such as lignite can form much more quickly, in the order of 5M years. That might give us a sustainable rate for those coals of 250,000 Tonnes per year. We use between 32,000 and 1.3M times too much to be sustainable.
Wood is potentially a sustainable resource. If you harvest it at a rate lower than can restore itself, there is no direct risk from logging. For much of the 20th century, this was indeed what was practiced, but by the 1960s, demand had exceeded capacity. Especially in the 1980s under the Reagan/Watt regime, a high fraction of the old growth lumber in America was harvested and sold off, a huge part of it to the far east.
Total worldwide consumption of wood today is about 4B cubic meters. There are about 4B hectares of forest in the world (down from 5.9B before industrialization. We've been losing about 13M hectares/yr). Canadian forests contain about 432 cubic meters per hectare. Extrapolating that to the whole world, if we were to harvest 1 cubic meter per year per hectare, the forests would thus have 432 years to recover. My forester friend tells me that if we harvest 10% or less every 15 or 20 years, that can be carried on indefinitely without harming the forest ecosystem--that's more than double that 1 m^3 per hectare rate. But that's not what we're doing. We mostly clear cut, in patches of a few hectares at a time, and during the '80s, we basically clear cut alternate quads, leaving a patchwork of tiny forests. This will recover eventually, but it'll take hundreds of years, and in the meantime, we've wrecked the local ecosystem, which will make it take longer to recover than necessary. Worse yet, we're permanently clearing areas for agriculture, industrial and residential use.
Lots of privately owned forests are harvested sustainably. We know it can be done. We need for the government to protect our public forests this same way.
Total proven oil reserves are about 1.3T bbl. Consumption has roughly tripled in the last 50 years, from about 11B bbl/yr in 1965 to about 33B bbl/yr today. This suggests that the total amount of oil that was theoretically available at the start of the 20th century was about 2T bbl. That oil took about 200M years for the earth to make. 2T/200M = 10,000. So a sustainable rate for oil is about 10,000 bbl/year. We are consuming it at 3 million times that rate.
World coal production is about 8B tonnes. The best guesses I can find say we can keep this up for about another 100 years, which suggests that there are just about 1T tonnes left and there were probably about 1.5T to start with. Like oil, hard coal takes around 200-300M years for the earth to create. That means we can sustainably harvest about 5000 Tonnes per year. But there's a difference. Soft coals such as lignite can form much more quickly, in the order of 5M years. That might give us a sustainable rate for those coals of 250,000 Tonnes per year. We use between 32,000 and 1.3M times too much to be sustainable.
08 December 2016
2016 Deaths
People who are famous to me. Perhaps it's that I'm getting older so I'm aware of more people--and they're getting older too. But it seems like 2016 has been a particularly bad year.
Jan 3 Peter Naur Computer Scientist
Jan 10 David Bowie Performance Artist, Musician
Jan 14 Alan Rickman, Actor
Jan 18 Glenn Frey, Musician, The Eagles
Jan 21 Bill Johnson, Ski Racer
Jan 24 Marvin Minsky, AI Researcher
Jan 26 Abe Vigoda, Actor
Jan 28 Paul Kantner, Musician, Jefferson Airplane
Jan 28 Signe Anderson, Musician, Jefferson Airplane
Feb 4 Maurice White, Musician, Earth Wind and Fire
Feb 4 Edgar Mitchell, Astronaut, 6th man on the moon
Feb 6 Dan Hicks Musician, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks
Feb 13 Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice
Feb 16 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary General
Feb 19 Umberto Eco, Novelist
Feb 19 Harper Lee, Novelist
Feb 28 George Kennedy, Actor
Mar 5 Ray Tomlinson, Computer Programmer, implemented first ARPAnet email program
Mar 6 Nancy Davis Reagan, Actress, First Lady
Mar 8 George Martin, Record Producer, 5th Beatle
Mar 10 Keith Emerson, Musician, The Nice, Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Mar 10 Ernestine Anderson, Jazz Musician
Mar 21 Bob Ebeling, Engineer, tried to explain Challenger O-Rings
Mar 21 Andrew Grove, Engineer, Semiconductor executive
Mar 24 Garry Shandling, Comedian, Actor
Mar 29 Patty Duke, Actress
Apr 6 Merle Haggard, Country Musician
Apr 13 Gareth Thomas, Actor (Blakes 7)
Apr 21 Lonnie Mack, Musician
Apr 21 Prince, Musician
May 8 William Schallert, Actor (played Patty Duke's father)
May 12 Susannah Mushatt Jones, world's oldest person, age 116 years 311 days
May 19 Morley Safer, Journalist
Jun 3 Muhammad Ali, Boxer, Activist
Jun 7 Tom Perkins, Venture Capitalist
Jun 10 Gordie Howe, Hockey player
Jun 27 Alvin Toffler, Futurist
Jun 27 Simon Ramo, Engineer, co founder TRW age 103
Jun 28 Scotty Moore, Musician
Jul 2 Elie Weisel, Concentration Camp Victim, Author, Activist
Jul 19 Garry Marshall, Director
Jul 24 Marni Nixon, Singer
Jul 31 Seymour Papert, Computer Scientist
Aug 3 Chris Amon, Racing driver
Aug 11 Glenn Yarbrough, Folksinger
Aug 15 Bobby Hutcherson, Jazz Musician
Aug 17 Arthur Hiller, Movie Director
Aug 19 John McLaughlin, TV Pundit
Aug 22 Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans, Jazz Musician
Aug 29 Gene Wilder, Actor
Sep 5 Phyllis Schlafly, Conservative
Sep 16 Edward Albee, Playwright
Sep 25 Arnold Palmer, Golfer
Sep 28 Shimon Peres, Israeli President & Prime Minister, Peacemaker
Oct 2 Neville Marriner, Musician, Conductor
Oct 5 Brock Yates, Motorsports journalist
Oct 18 David Bunnell, Computer journalist
Oct 22 Sheri Tepper, Science Fiction writer
Nov 7 Leonard Cohen Poet, Musician
Nov 7 Janet Reno, US Attorney General
Nov 7 Roy Kerth, UC Berkeley physicist
Nov 8 American Freedom and Democracy
Nov 11 Robert Vaughn, Actor
Nov 13 Leon Russell, Musician
Nov 14 Gwen Ifill, TV Journalist
Nov 15 Mose Allison, Jazz Musician
Nov 16 Melvin Laird, Politician
Nov 17 Samuel Ross Williams (Smerdyakov Flying Karamozov)
Nov 24 Florence Henderson, Actress
Nov 25 Fidel Castro, Dictator
Nov 25 Ron Glass, Actor
Nov 26 Fritz Weaver, Actor, Narrator
Dec 7 Paul Elvstrom Sailor
Dec 7 Greg Lake Musician, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Dec 8 John Glenn Astronaut, Test Pilot, US Senator
Dec 17 Henry Heimlich, Physician, inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver
Dec 18 Zsa Zsa Gabor, Actress
Dec 25 Jeffrey Hayden. TV Director, Producer, Eva Marie Saint's husband.
Dec 25 George Michael, Singer
Dec 25 Vera Rubin, Astrophysicst
Dec 27 Carrie Fisher, Actress, Author
Dec 28 Debbie Reynolds, Actress, Dancer, Carrie Fisher's mother.
Dec 30 Tyrus Wong, Cartoonist (Bambi)
Dec 31 William Christopher, Actor (Father Mulcahey on MASH)
Jan 3 Peter Naur Computer Scientist
Jan 10 David Bowie Performance Artist, Musician
Jan 14 Alan Rickman, Actor
Jan 18 Glenn Frey, Musician, The Eagles
Jan 21 Bill Johnson, Ski Racer
Jan 24 Marvin Minsky, AI Researcher
Jan 26 Abe Vigoda, Actor
Jan 28 Paul Kantner, Musician, Jefferson Airplane
Jan 28 Signe Anderson, Musician, Jefferson Airplane
Feb 4 Maurice White, Musician, Earth Wind and Fire
Feb 4 Edgar Mitchell, Astronaut, 6th man on the moon
Feb 6 Dan Hicks Musician, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks
Feb 13 Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice
Feb 16 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN Secretary General
Feb 19 Umberto Eco, Novelist
Feb 19 Harper Lee, Novelist
Feb 28 George Kennedy, Actor
Mar 5 Ray Tomlinson, Computer Programmer, implemented first ARPAnet email program
Mar 6 Nancy Davis Reagan, Actress, First Lady
Mar 8 George Martin, Record Producer, 5th Beatle
Mar 10 Keith Emerson, Musician, The Nice, Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Mar 10 Ernestine Anderson, Jazz Musician
Mar 21 Bob Ebeling, Engineer, tried to explain Challenger O-Rings
Mar 21 Andrew Grove, Engineer, Semiconductor executive
Mar 24 Garry Shandling, Comedian, Actor
Mar 29 Patty Duke, Actress
Apr 6 Merle Haggard, Country Musician
Apr 13 Gareth Thomas, Actor (Blakes 7)
Apr 21 Lonnie Mack, Musician
Apr 21 Prince, Musician
May 8 William Schallert, Actor (played Patty Duke's father)
May 12 Susannah Mushatt Jones, world's oldest person, age 116 years 311 days
May 19 Morley Safer, Journalist
Jun 3 Muhammad Ali, Boxer, Activist
Jun 7 Tom Perkins, Venture Capitalist
Jun 10 Gordie Howe, Hockey player
Jun 27 Alvin Toffler, Futurist
Jun 27 Simon Ramo, Engineer, co founder TRW age 103
Jun 28 Scotty Moore, Musician
Jul 2 Elie Weisel, Concentration Camp Victim, Author, Activist
Jul 19 Garry Marshall, Director
Jul 24 Marni Nixon, Singer
Jul 31 Seymour Papert, Computer Scientist
Aug 3 Chris Amon, Racing driver
Aug 11 Glenn Yarbrough, Folksinger
Aug 15 Bobby Hutcherson, Jazz Musician
Aug 17 Arthur Hiller, Movie Director
Aug 19 John McLaughlin, TV Pundit
Aug 22 Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans, Jazz Musician
Aug 29 Gene Wilder, Actor
Sep 5 Phyllis Schlafly, Conservative
Sep 16 Edward Albee, Playwright
Sep 25 Arnold Palmer, Golfer
Sep 28 Shimon Peres, Israeli President & Prime Minister, Peacemaker
Oct 2 Neville Marriner, Musician, Conductor
Oct 5 Brock Yates, Motorsports journalist
Oct 18 David Bunnell, Computer journalist
Oct 22 Sheri Tepper, Science Fiction writer
Nov 7 Leonard Cohen Poet, Musician
Nov 7 Janet Reno, US Attorney General
Nov 7 Roy Kerth, UC Berkeley physicist
Nov 8 American Freedom and Democracy
Nov 11 Robert Vaughn, Actor
Nov 13 Leon Russell, Musician
Nov 14 Gwen Ifill, TV Journalist
Nov 15 Mose Allison, Jazz Musician
Nov 16 Melvin Laird, Politician
Nov 17 Samuel Ross Williams (Smerdyakov Flying Karamozov)
Nov 24 Florence Henderson, Actress
Nov 25 Fidel Castro, Dictator
Nov 25 Ron Glass, Actor
Nov 26 Fritz Weaver, Actor, Narrator
Dec 7 Paul Elvstrom Sailor
Dec 7 Greg Lake Musician, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Dec 8 John Glenn Astronaut, Test Pilot, US Senator
Dec 17 Henry Heimlich, Physician, inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver
Dec 18 Zsa Zsa Gabor, Actress
Dec 25 Jeffrey Hayden. TV Director, Producer, Eva Marie Saint's husband.
Dec 25 George Michael, Singer
Dec 25 Vera Rubin, Astrophysicst
Dec 27 Carrie Fisher, Actress, Author
Dec 28 Debbie Reynolds, Actress, Dancer, Carrie Fisher's mother.
Dec 30 Tyrus Wong, Cartoonist (Bambi)
Dec 31 William Christopher, Actor (Father Mulcahey on MASH)
02 December 2016
Suggested Supercharger Locations, II
I've made so many addenda to my original version of this I think it's time for a new start. Tesla has done lots of what I suggested (although there's little evidence they listen to me).
I-5 improvements: There are a bunch of biggish gaps. The worst would be solved by adding a station near Roseburg, OR (it's 138 miles from Springfield to Grants Pass, but southbound it's uphill, so when it's cold, my car drinks about 190 miles of rated range). A station near Longview, WA, would allow Seattle<->California travelers like me to stop only once on the way to Eugene instead of two as today, and relieve some of the present crowding at Centralia. Mount Shasta and Grants Pass are only four berths--more are needed. Better would be to add sites: Ashland or Yreka, perhaps?
We really need superchargers close to Seattle, and to a lesser degree, Portland. Where these are important is for out-of-towners doing one-day visits. The new pricing model may help this, because it will inhibit locals from doing their daily charging there. (Although there needs to be a better option for people who can't get a home charger for some reason. Home charging is the single best thing about an electric car, I think). A charger near Seattle is also needed for people trying to get to Ellensburg and points east from Burlington or Centralia.
Olympic Peninsula: Aberdeen is under construction. Something is needed between Sequim and Forks. Dare I ask for both? (There's a CHAdeMO in Port Angeles and several J1772s and 14-50s in RV places, but more is needed)
North Cascades: Route 20 (which is closed for the winter as I write this) is one of the prettiest drives anywhere. Plug-in North Central Washington has been installing 70+ amp L2 J1772s (Newhalem, Winthrop, Twisp, Omak, Pateros, Waterville, Wenatchee, Coles Corner near Leavenworth, probably more), many of which are free and seem to be well maintained, which is awesome, but that's about 5 hours of waiting between Ellensburg and Burlington even if you have dual chargers. Put a supercharger at Twisp or Winthrop, and Leavenworth. Make sure there's plenty of destination charging at the Stevens Pass ski resort (there appears to be none at present)
Slightly related: Ellensburg is too small (5 stalls) and is often ICEd. It's the logical place though. Alternatives are needed. One possibility would be to put a new supercharger in Cle Elum, which would relieve the pressure in Ellensburg and take 30 miles off a Seattle to Leavenworth trip via Snoqualmie Pass. Another one in George or Moses Lake. There's often a queue in Ellensburg after a show at the gorge.
South Cascades: Seattle or Tacoma to Mount Rainier Crystal Mountain is right on the limit and Seattle-Paradise is about 110 mountain miles each way. Too far, but only a little. There are NO destination chargers listed on plugshare for either route or the ski resort. A few restaurants would do well to add a charger anywhere along there--an hour at 40 amps would make a big difference. There are several NEMA 14-50s (and one 10-50) on US-12. A start but not good enough. A supercharger somewhere near Packwood would open this route up.
There needs to be a reasonably direct route between Reno and Spokane. Right now you need to go west to I-5 (over 300 miles out of your way) or east almost to Salt Lake (even more). Two suggestions. The simple one would be to put a charger at Burns Junction, where US-95 and OR-78 meet. Traffic is probably so light it could be a single supercharger. A prettier and slightly more direct (but not really shorter) option would be to use US-97 and/or 395. A start has been made on US-97 with Bend and Klamath, OR. It's 250 mountainous miles between Klamath and Reno, so there should probably be two more. Susanville, and probably somewhere around Bieber, Adin or Alturas.
101 is technically complete, but Eureka<->Ukiah is 156 hilly miles, which is a problem when it's cold and wet. Also, CA 1 through Mendocino and Fort Bragg are a lovely, albeit twisty drive. I'm thinking a charger in Leggett on 101 and another near Point Arena or Sea Ranch. Maybe Bodega Bay? (that's where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed)
I-80. Nebraska, which a few weeks ago had zero superchargers, will soon have four, all on I-80. Another 3 or 4 in southern Wyoming and I-80 will be complete.
I-15 is almost complete. Lima, MT is almost finished but progress has stopped for almost two months. There should be at least two more, one near Great Falls and one either near the border on I-15 or at East Glacier Village on US-2. I'm very happy that they put one at West Yellowstone and in Jackson, which almost makes the park accessible.
TransCanada Highway. You can get from Vancouver to Calgary but then it just stops...and doesn't start up again until you're almost to Toronto. Over 2000 miles/3300km.
I am mystified why I-94 is taking so long. It's fossil fuel country--perhaps it's local intransigence.
Something similar may be happening with I-10.
Route 66 is now complete, Chicago to L.A and all the cities named in the song have a supercharger in or in the town next door. Another great driving song, Little Feat's "Willin", has four named cities: Tuscon, Tucumcari, Tehachapi and Tonopah. The only one without a supercharger is Tuscon, which is the next logical place on I-10. Tehachapi's is 15 miles away, which is close enough, I think.
addenda 23Feb2017
Progress is happening on I-10. It is now possible to get to El Paso, TX and a charger is planned for there. After that there will be a gap through Tuscon 370 miles long, which will take 2 or 3 new chargers.
The Michigan Upper Peninsula is presently unreachable. Mackinaw is 175 fairly flat miles from Bay City on I-75, which is 276 miles along the lake shore to Green Bay. I'd put one first somewhere near Mackinaw, then midway to Green Bay, for example at Escanaba. The UP is beautiful country--it's worth a trip.
It seems to me that there would be something appropriate about having a charger at the Grand Coulee Dam. It's not a high traffic area but it's pretty much where the electricity comes from here in the northwest. Plugshare says there's a NEMA 14-50 at an RV park near there but that's it. It's 117 miles from Coeur d'Alene and 120 from Ellensburg, so it's already a sort of reasonable place. In any case, there surely should be a few J1772s at the visitor center even if they don't spring for a Tesla Supercharger.
I-5 improvements: There are a bunch of biggish gaps. The worst would be solved by adding a station near Roseburg, OR (it's 138 miles from Springfield to Grants Pass, but southbound it's uphill, so when it's cold, my car drinks about 190 miles of rated range). A station near Longview, WA, would allow Seattle<->California travelers like me to stop only once on the way to Eugene instead of two as today, and relieve some of the present crowding at Centralia. Mount Shasta and Grants Pass are only four berths--more are needed. Better would be to add sites: Ashland or Yreka, perhaps?
We really need superchargers close to Seattle, and to a lesser degree, Portland. Where these are important is for out-of-towners doing one-day visits. The new pricing model may help this, because it will inhibit locals from doing their daily charging there. (Although there needs to be a better option for people who can't get a home charger for some reason. Home charging is the single best thing about an electric car, I think). A charger near Seattle is also needed for people trying to get to Ellensburg and points east from Burlington or Centralia.
Olympic Peninsula: Aberdeen is under construction. Something is needed between Sequim and Forks. Dare I ask for both? (There's a CHAdeMO in Port Angeles and several J1772s and 14-50s in RV places, but more is needed)
North Cascades: Route 20 (which is closed for the winter as I write this) is one of the prettiest drives anywhere. Plug-in North Central Washington has been installing 70+ amp L2 J1772s (Newhalem, Winthrop, Twisp, Omak, Pateros, Waterville, Wenatchee, Coles Corner near Leavenworth, probably more), many of which are free and seem to be well maintained, which is awesome, but that's about 5 hours of waiting between Ellensburg and Burlington even if you have dual chargers. Put a supercharger at Twisp or Winthrop, and Leavenworth. Make sure there's plenty of destination charging at the Stevens Pass ski resort (there appears to be none at present)
Slightly related: Ellensburg is too small (5 stalls) and is often ICEd. It's the logical place though. Alternatives are needed. One possibility would be to put a new supercharger in Cle Elum, which would relieve the pressure in Ellensburg and take 30 miles off a Seattle to Leavenworth trip via Snoqualmie Pass. Another one in George or Moses Lake. There's often a queue in Ellensburg after a show at the gorge.
South Cascades: Seattle or Tacoma to Mount Rainier Crystal Mountain is right on the limit and Seattle-Paradise is about 110 mountain miles each way. Too far, but only a little. There are NO destination chargers listed on plugshare for either route or the ski resort. A few restaurants would do well to add a charger anywhere along there--an hour at 40 amps would make a big difference. There are several NEMA 14-50s (and one 10-50) on US-12. A start but not good enough. A supercharger somewhere near Packwood would open this route up.
There needs to be a reasonably direct route between Reno and Spokane. Right now you need to go west to I-5 (over 300 miles out of your way) or east almost to Salt Lake (even more). Two suggestions. The simple one would be to put a charger at Burns Junction, where US-95 and OR-78 meet. Traffic is probably so light it could be a single supercharger. A prettier and slightly more direct (but not really shorter) option would be to use US-97 and/or 395. A start has been made on US-97 with Bend and Klamath, OR. It's 250 mountainous miles between Klamath and Reno, so there should probably be two more. Susanville, and probably somewhere around Bieber, Adin or Alturas.
101 is technically complete, but Eureka<->Ukiah is 156 hilly miles, which is a problem when it's cold and wet. Also, CA 1 through Mendocino and Fort Bragg are a lovely, albeit twisty drive. I'm thinking a charger in Leggett on 101 and another near Point Arena or Sea Ranch. Maybe Bodega Bay? (that's where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed)
I-80. Nebraska, which a few weeks ago had zero superchargers, will soon have four, all on I-80. Another 3 or 4 in southern Wyoming and I-80 will be complete.
I-15 is almost complete. Lima, MT is almost finished but progress has stopped for almost two months. There should be at least two more, one near Great Falls and one either near the border on I-15 or at East Glacier Village on US-2. I'm very happy that they put one at West Yellowstone and in Jackson, which almost makes the park accessible.
TransCanada Highway. You can get from Vancouver to Calgary but then it just stops...and doesn't start up again until you're almost to Toronto. Over 2000 miles/3300km.
I am mystified why I-94 is taking so long. It's fossil fuel country--perhaps it's local intransigence.
Something similar may be happening with I-10.
Route 66 is now complete, Chicago to L.A and all the cities named in the song have a supercharger in or in the town next door. Another great driving song, Little Feat's "Willin", has four named cities: Tuscon, Tucumcari, Tehachapi and Tonopah. The only one without a supercharger is Tuscon, which is the next logical place on I-10. Tehachapi's is 15 miles away, which is close enough, I think.
addenda 23Feb2017
Progress is happening on I-10. It is now possible to get to El Paso, TX and a charger is planned for there. After that there will be a gap through Tuscon 370 miles long, which will take 2 or 3 new chargers.
The Michigan Upper Peninsula is presently unreachable. Mackinaw is 175 fairly flat miles from Bay City on I-75, which is 276 miles along the lake shore to Green Bay. I'd put one first somewhere near Mackinaw, then midway to Green Bay, for example at Escanaba. The UP is beautiful country--it's worth a trip.
It seems to me that there would be something appropriate about having a charger at the Grand Coulee Dam. It's not a high traffic area but it's pretty much where the electricity comes from here in the northwest. Plugshare says there's a NEMA 14-50 at an RV park near there but that's it. It's 117 miles from Coeur d'Alene and 120 from Ellensburg, so it's already a sort of reasonable place. In any case, there surely should be a few J1772s at the visitor center even if they don't spring for a Tesla Supercharger.
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