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41
Weather Typhoon Kajiki Prompts Thailand to Prepare for Impact
We got nothing here. Better to have named it Typhoon Trump. It's already TACO'd. -
41
Weather Typhoon Kajiki Prompts Thailand to Prepare for Impact
I just use the https://weather.tmd.go.th/bma_ncLoop.php website, I check the loop of the radar and keep track of weather in my area when I need to do something outside. All the weather sites here trying to predict the weather are next to useless. -
124
Road Rage (Foreigner Style)
Sound would be a plus but he looks a bit of a drama queen wanting a problem. Due to the his penchant for confrontation and obscene gesticulation while your daughter is in the car, I'd definitely report it. -
1
Myanmar’s Iconic Gokteik Bridge Bombed Amid Escalating Conflict
Here is some historical wrap-up on this magnificent symbol of engineering dedication, professionalism and what the British empire had achieved in the (distant) past. The Indian government (the British rules Burma and Malaya out of India back in the day) ordered the construction and the Americans wanted to put their foot into the dealings of the British empire which resulted in undercutting the British competition in price and construction time. Here some notes from back in my days 😉 The Gokteik Viaduct (GPS: 22.342270 96.859231) This magnificent structure, with its almost 700 meters long and over 100 meters high, is still considered a world-class masterpiece due to its technical and natural characteristics. The British planning and construction management was carried out under the baton of Sir Arthur Rendel of the “Burma Railroad Company”. The physical construction however was carried out by the “Pennsylvania and Maryland Bridge Construction Company,” based in Steelton, USA. The latter secured the contract thanks to an undercut price and a third of the construction time; the Americans' award was due to British conservatism and the trade union nuisance back then already. Mr. John C. Turk was the American Chief Engineer in residence on site and it is also thanks to him, that we have plenty of photographic proof of the construction development. This fantastic structure over the Chungzoune River in the Gokteik Gorge allowed for the extension of the previously built Rangoon-Mandalay railway line all the way to Lashio. This feat of American engineering consists of a total of 232,868 parts (not including the rivets), was assembled into 15 towers with a span of 24 meters each, 10 tension elements of 37 meters each, and 18-meter-long girders. To position the tangential viaduct in the very rugged terrain, the British designed two corresponding curved bridgeheads of 88 and 107 meters respectively and bored two tunnels on the north side to accommodate the 251-meter radius and a slight gradient between the two bridgeheads. The construction timeframe was met in 16 months; but how they managed to haul all that steel, weighing 4,332 tons, through the jungle about 100 kilometers northeast of Mandalay will probably remain a mystery forever. The start of construction did not bode well, with torrential monsoon rains and a 450-millimeter typhoon in October 1899, which temporarily made transport from Mandalay to the construction site impossible. The assembly was supervised by 35 Americans under the direction of 12 British experts; the army of illiterate Burmese worked according to different color codes, which had already been marked at the factory. Of the total 994,612 rivets, only 232,868 had to be countersunk on site; factory bar codes enabled the rivets to be inserted into their corresponding holes. The last rivet was sunk by Sir Frederic Fryer, Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, on November 1, 1900 – mission accomplished - the viaduct was complete! With the Crown's financial outlay of UKP 112,200 at the time (UKP 18 million today), exports from southwest China were no longer an issue – the line (including the Gokteik Viaduct) was handed over to the Burma Railway Company on schedule on June 1, 1901. Fortunately, the Burmese have done nothing for 122 years except refresh the paint every few years – and that's a good thing. I first crossed this viaduct in 1977; at the time, it was extremely laborious and bureaucratic, requiring a Burmese to vouch for me – just in case I were to sabotage this then (and still today) strategically important connection between Mandalay and Lashio. I corruptly bribed my first "witness" with a few kyat (local currency)! In December 2017, for what could have been my 40th visit to Burma/Myanmar, a few friends and we (two cars and three large motorcycles) wanted to visit "my" favorite viaduct. The only road up to the plateau was blocked by a third-party accident for just long enough that we missed the departure of the northbound train (131up) from Gokteik (GPS: 22.337906 96.855664). We then raced through the Gokteik Valley to catch the southbound train (132down) from Naung Peng (GPS: 22.351174, 96.914135). The train could only cross the viaduct after the northbound train (131) had arrived in Naung Peng. Of course, that also failed by minutes; everyone sat around disappointed. Thanks to a greenback showing 100 USD, I was able to convince the stationmaster to start the diesel railcar. So much for a unique private passage across this legendary viaduct – with a stop right on top of this relic of the British Empire. Here's the post from a fellow passenger at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGEifFB6IwU I myself posted the following two videos on YouTube; the first 20 seconds are (unfortunately) blurry, but they might still give an impression of British precision work. 131up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6hI0Wg2Dw 132down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLauO7nPNKE Even Paul Theroux, in his worthwhile work “The Great Railway Bazaar - by train through Asia,” immortalized the Gokteik Viaduct as an “absolute monster of silver geometry in all the ragged rock and jungle, its presence was bizarre.” -
124
Road Rage (Foreigner Style)
@fredwiggy Please link to the five people that have agreed with @lordgrinz version of events. The first posters were only commenting on the other drivers subsequent behaviour. But pretty much everyone agrees that @lordgrinz precipitated the event with his aggressive driving actions. -
41
Trump takes 10% of Intel, as Washington becomes Chinatown
So Trump had nothing to do with the decision. Got it!
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