Media Fail?

The Arts Mechanical

Recently there was an accident on the NJ Transit into Hoboken Terminal.  The media has been all over this. Unfortunately the media doesn’t seem to have the skills in backgrounding that it once had.  Putting people in front of cameras, yes.  Getting the story, other than mindlessly repeating the same thing over and over, no.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Major-Train-Accident-in-Hoboken-Injuries-Reported-395249051.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/train-crashes-new-jersey-transit-hoboken-station-article-1.2811435

http://abcnews.go.com/US/nj-transit-train-crashes-hoboken-station-reports/story?id=42444695

http://www.fox5ny.com/news/208559883-story

Here’s some raw footage.

Now with fifteen minutes of Googling or so I was able to obtain some background. First of all some videos of the Hoboken Terminal.

Now here’s everything Wikipedia has on all the relevant topics about this accident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(railcar)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NJ_Transit_Rail_Operations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoboken_Terminal

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7353415,-74.0319025,842m/data=!3m1!1e3

Now a lot of the discussion seems to surround the installation of Positive train control and the delay of the installation of same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control

Now the talk about the lack of PTC is, in this case more than a little of a red herring.  Lets…

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How to Dash Through the Airport in 7 Ways

How To Get Things Done in 10 Ways

I’ve been doing some traveling for work the past couple of weeks and it has been…well…exhausting. It’s a whole new spectrum of knowledge, places, people, that I’ve been trying to keep up with. Most of the traveling has been driving, but I did have to fly to one location too. And Ibarelymade it too! I had been so exhausted from all the driving the few days before, that I deliriously set my alarm the night before my flight for 2:45 am. (which would have been perfect to get to the airport by 4:00 am).

Except I missed that little note on my alarms app, and for whatever reason, chose to adjust an alarm that was set for Wednesdays only. My flight was on a Thursday. Luckily, the boyfriend’s alarm goes off at 4:00 am for his job, but I was like, why is his alarm going off before…

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Throwback The ’90s – One Earring Only And The Lennon Sunglasses

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The bright side of the ’90s one-earring trend for me was that, every so often; I shared the earrings with my female friends, we split the cost of a pair and each kept a single earring – the whole look at half the price!
However, the down side of this was that I ended up having a box of different single earring.., as soon as the trend faded away, this box of odd earrings was doomed.

The round frame sunglasses; widely known as Lennon sunglasses, funny enough, they first made a memorable impact on me; not via John Lennon, but from the 1987 Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic film The Last Emperor.
When Qing dynasty’s last emperor Puyi 溥儀 (played by John Lone 尊龍) wore them in the movie (see the image below), I thought they were ridiculous but kind of cool at the same time, and ever since that movie, I’ve always…

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NEW YORKER Says It All (and other gripes too)

Must admit I did lot of political stuff when Bernie was active. Never touched Republicans. Now it is my turn to endorse a candidate. My Favorite Magazine, the NEW YORKER, did it in a cool way. YES, a 131 kilo / 289 pound Miss Universe sounds cool.

Much of what I do day-to-day is not glorious. Sometimes I get to write, what I call great blogs. You may not agree that SO HOW IS THE 124-YEAR OLD “START-UP” COMPANY DOING? is great. But I do. I spent several hours working on it.

Many times I think I am in the wrong business. I obviously love writing blogs. I love picking other blogs to REBLOG. But the STUFF that goes along with it is absolute “BS”. Respond to comments on WordPress. Go onto FACEBOOK and respond to whatever. Same with TWITTER, PINTEREST and the other little followers. Not Like the old days when I wrote about SUPPLY CHAINS.

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Jazz You Too

Some more magic and power!

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Florida East Coast Railway Named Highest Value Rail Provider

Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) has a long history of providing value through flexible, safe and reliable rail transportation, and has been named the highest valued rail service provider in America by Logistics Management magazine by earning their 2016 Quest for Quality award.

The Quest for Quality award is regarded as one of the most important measure of customer satisfaction and performance excellence. Transportation service providers are rated on the areas of on-time performance, value, information technology, customer service and equipment and operations.

For over 100 years, FECR has been known for its innovative culture and early adoption of railroad technologies. The railroad continues to implement the latest equipment, processes and technology to ensure the highest level of safety and reliability while providing a broad variety of equipment and scheduled services that allows flexible, tailored shipping solutions.

“Our goal is to provide employees, customers and the communities in which we operate the benefits of being the safest and most reliable railroad in America,” said Adam Bridges, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at Florida East Coast Railway. “We continually enhance our operations with groundbreaking technology to provide on-time performance with the utmost safety, and dependability across all our operations.”
FECR currently uses both Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) and Automatic Train Control (ATC) signal systems to provide overlapping layers of protection and safety. FECR is in the process of incorporating Positive Train Control (PTC), to ensure efficient, safe train operations.

FECR also incorporates advanced locomotive technologies, such as Trip Optimizer and Wi-Tronix, which provide awareness of human and environmental factors with train operations to help optimize movements and ensure the safest trip possible.

The company stays connected to its customers via their online web portal FECR Connect, delivering added value through features such as ‘order entry’ and real time equipment tracking. Also, creating EZ Buy, an online price quote and booking system for transactional door-to-door freight between South Florida and Southeast U.S. markets — offering a unique price negotiation capability to customers.

Additionally, FECR has launched the FEC Railway app, providing up to date information to customers, employees and communities. The app is now available on iTunes and Google Play app stores.
About Florida East Coast Railway

The Florida East Coast Railway (“FECR”) is a 351-mile freight rail system located along the east coast of Florida. It is the exclusive rail provider for PortMiami, Port Everglades, and Port of Palm Beach. FECR connects to the national railway system in Jacksonville, Fla., to move cargo originating or terminating there. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., FECR provides end-to-end intermodal and carload solutions to customers who demand cost-effective and premium quality. For additional information download the FEC Railway app, or visit http://www.fecrwy.com.

Layers

Perspectives on Life, the Universe and Everything

These layers protect tender soul
Need caressing, soft touches
Claws will disappear
Softest hands will hold near
dear, to her heart

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The Most Important Idea In The World…

So How is the 124-Year Old “Start-Up” Company Doing?

In Greenville, SC; G.E. makes gas turbines.(pictured above)  Because of digital technology and other improvements, the production time of 5 years has been cut in half.

In 2009, Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO of General Electric, realized how much DATA was being collected by jet engines. It could be a lot of value, but G.E. was not really using it. G.E. needed to be more capable with SOFTWARE. G.E. was a manufacturer (turbines, locomotives, jet engines, medical equipment) but needed to treat Amazon and IBM as competitors.

At that time, G.E. was returning to its industrial roots, dumping GE Capital. In 2011, G.E. opened a Software Center in San Ramon, CA. The Center’s biggest mission is to build an “industrial-strength” computer operating system. You know, like ANDROID or WINDOWS! The aim is to realize this goal by 2020.

Instead of just dumping money into San Ramon, G.E. is involving the WHOLE COMPANY. Many of the 300,000 employees are traveling to San Ramon to “soak up the culture”. The goal is to move the digital wizardy of Silicon Valley into the rest of G.E. and into industrial manufacturing.

The big goal is to incorporate the “Internet Of Things” into something that helps manufacturers. For example, how about using sensors to decide when a machine needs repairs?

It will be a transformation. G.E. will sell “business outcomes” not just machines to it’s customers.

Google and Facebook revolutionized advertising. Amazon changed retailing. G.E. will change manufacturing.

Could be that the all the data and analysis will be worth more than the actual machines!!!

Starting out, GE Digital had some early reluctance to efforts to hire software engineers and scientists. But G.E. has always been great with advertising.

The “digital revolution” is already hitting railroad trains. At this week’s InnoTrans 2016 transportation trade show in Berlin, for example, GE is unveiling a “superbrain” platform for locomotives that transforms them into mobile data headquarters—helping make trains smarter and faster. “A decade from now, digital tools will take railroad productivity and efficiency to unprecedented levels,” says Seth Bodnar, chief digital officer at GE Transportation. “The whole network will light up like a brain.”

It’s about time. Bodnar’s train brain will help railways boost locomotive horsepower, improve operations and burn less fuel. “It’s really about enabling self-aware trains in a smart ecosystem,” he says.

Written by Ken Kinlock