YOU MIGHT WANT TO SAVE THOSE TYPEWRITERS AND STEAM LOCOMOTIVES…
What do typewriters and steam locomotives have in common? Well, besides the fact that I have one of the former, and am fascinated by the latter, a great deal it would seem. And yes, I am walking right off the end of the twig to start this week's blogs, because I've been thinking a lot lately of what, really, would we do if North America were hit by a massive EMP attack, or if the power grid went down for some time? And I've come to some interesting high octane speculations and conclusions.
First, a little personal background. Most people who know me know I'm fascinated by (1) big artillery, (2) roller coasters, (3) steam locomotives, and (3) pipe organs. The big artillery fascination comes from a visit to the memorial in my home town of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to the battleship South Dakota, which served with distinction during the naval battles at Guadalcanal during World War Two. My father took me to see the memorial when I was a boy, and the big 16" naval rifle with their 6' tall projectiles fired my imagination with the feats of analog engineering they represented. So did the old analog fire control computer in the memorial center. So much for my big artillery fascination. Pipe organs are self explanatory, for I grew up playing them from the time I was nine, and played my first one for my sister's wedding. That leaves roller coasters and steam locomotives. My father, and one of his brothers, worked for the railroads, and hence I grew up fascinated with big locomotives, particularly steam locomotives, and I suppose that explains anything with tracks, and hence, roller coasters.
Which brings us a little closer to the business of the day. Many people may not be aware, but the Union Pacific Railroad in this country has been busy, for some years now, buying up old steam locomotives, including the big articulated steam locomotives - the 4-6-6-4 Challengers, and the 4-8-8-4 Big Boy - and restoring them, converting them to oil use. They call this their "heritage fleet," and the old engines are seen occasionally at "railroad heritage" celebrations around the country hauling passengers. Which raised a significant question to my mind: why would a major railroad be going to all the expense to buy and restore these old clanking mechanical monsters, seemingly almost alive with their snorting, huffing, and puffing? In the case of the Big Boy restoration, Union Pacific has had almost to build an entire locomotive works to machine replacement parts that have worn out, and almost completely rebuild the firebox and boilers on the beast, and machine the vanadium drivers that turn the big driving wheels. This, needless to say, is quite an expense. Hardly one contributing to the bottom line of the railroad. So what's going on?
Then I found this video a couple of years ago of an old restored articulated 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotive pulling a 143 car freight train over the passes in somewhere in the American west, doing the work of several diesels... and doing it in 1991 no less! And just to drive the "Contemporaneous" nature of the video home, it shows a freight being hauled by several diesels in the opposite direction(apparently they didn't have enough diesels that day going east... or was something else involved? We'll get back to that something else in a moment):
Curious, I posted this video some weeks ago on this website's forum, but then I went looking further (oh, and by the way, for the environmentalists out there, these engines were converted by Union Pacific to run oil, though obviously at this time the Challenger was still burning coal). I found the old Challenger hauling more freight in the Laramie-Omaha corridor, chugging along through Nebraska!
That video was from 2010, and there she was again, the old Challenger chugging along and hauling freight in Nebraska. Then, just recently, I posted this video of engine 844, a 4-8-4 locomotive, again hauling freight from Denver to Cheyenne, this time from just a couple of weeks ago in 2018!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPLekSSiQ8Y&t=31s
Now, granted, Union Pacific probably isn't going to let anything go to waste, and if one of these old locomotives does a stint somewhere for "railroad heritage days," who can blame them for wanting to put them to good use hauling some freight on the way back? Except... why go to the expense of restoring these old beasts, and then training the crews on which valves to open and which levers to pull or push? Much less restore the more complicated articulated locomotives like the Challenger, and then have it haul a 143 car freight train!?
I had a suspicion, but then Catherine Austin Fitts sent me this article from the BBC about a small town in Alaska that hauled out its typewriters after a recent cyber attack brought its systems down, or at least, attempted to do so:
Town dusts off typewriters after cyber-attack
This story dovetails with a story from a few years ago that I even talked about on the late George Ann Hughes' The Byte Show, Russia had bought thousands of typewriters and was using them in its day-to-day memos and such. The reason? They were more secure from outside attack, immune to hacking, and so on. I myself have a typewriter that was gifted to me, against the possibility that communications might go down on computers, and I might have to communicate that way (since no one can read my "writing"). In the case of the Russia story, I had visions of busy typing pools typing up memoranda for this or that government agency, and shuttling them around Moscow through old fashioned pneumatic tube systems, an "internet of pneumatic tubes." Sounds crazy? Well, such networks lie in disrepair in this country, but they're still there in big cities like Chicago and New York City. You still encounter them in the drive through banking lanes.
In any case, I suspect that a similar agenda might be behind the restoration of these old steam locomotives to running condition, and that we're looking at "feasibility tests" to see if these old girls still have the muscle to haul freight (they do). After all, in a case of an EMP attack, the conventional diesel-electric locomotive will go down. The diesel might still function, but the electrical motors it runs that actually do the turning of the drive wheels, won't, not to mention all the digital gadgetry in a modern diesel locomotive. A steam locomotive, however, is all analog, and if you've ever stood in the cab of one of those old engines (I have), they're a dizzying array of valves, analog meters and dials, levers, and so on. Even the whistle is all analog. These old beasts, in other words, will still work and haul freight, when all else has failed. I don't for a moment believe that Union Pacific's interest here is solely to provide "fun and fascination" at "railroad heritage days". There's too much precision engineering involved in their restoration and the training of crews to operate them. There's too much expense involved to justify mere fun and games. The very fact that this railroad maintains a "steam shop" in Cheyenne, Wyoming, indicates something else may be afoot. To rebuild fireboxes, boilers, tubes, and so on, means in effect, that if they wished, they could build a steam locomotive entirely from scratch if need be. And, to round out my speculation, I suspect that this may be an ultimate goal: design and build a modern articulated steam engine, bottom-up. Time, of course, will tell. But in short, this means the railroad is spending a lot of money not just to restore old steam engines, but the knowledge base behind them.
But there's a catch to all this typewriter-steam locomotive madness. One individual pointed out that the signaling and switching on rail lines is now all automated, electric, and digital. True enough: the master control rooms of a modern railroad are full of computers, monitors, big screens, and look like the railroad equivalent of an air traffic control center. So one can restore all the steam locomotives one wishes, but the engineer still has to follow the signals on the track... and if that signalling goes down, no trains roll...
... so for my wild and woolly explanation to be true, then one would have to see the installation of the old "high and low ball" signalling along rail lines, and crews to operate them, and more typewriters in the operations centers. So far, that does not seem to be the case... But in a world moving to robots and even fully automated stores, what happens when digital goes down, or the robot needs to be repaired, and the repair robot isn't functioning? More importantly, what if those robotic trains that are currently running with no human crews, are also hit? Then you'll need good old fashioned analog technology - humans - to run the mill presses, lathes, and cash registers with hand cranks. If they start issuing old fashioned railroad lanterns to the stations along the way, or manually operated signalling posts, then we'll know something is afoot...
Now, honestly, this has been my most wild and woolly high octane speculation to date. But there's method to my madness. How do we avoid typewriterism and steam locomotivism? Well, there's always DARPA, and tomorrow's high octane speculation.
See you on the flip side...
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Well, if we’re going down the road of analog machinery, what about using those rotary phones for communication? Or has all the copper wire been replaced by fiber optics?
And those old manual typesetting presses such as the Gutenberg press?
Most long distance phone calls in the US have been micro wave (especially west of Chicago) since the 1970s.
There are still plenty of copper lines within cities and towns.
Sorry, did not mean to hit report comment!
Given the recent revelation of hardwired back doors into every CPU manufactured over the last 20+ years, it would be strategically advisable to reinvest in analog systems for required infrastructure and secure communications.
News of these back doors appeared and then vanished quickly in the news; but you can bet there are those who took that news very seriously as it totally compromises strategic systems.
Those who wage war by way of deception would be quick to make use of such an advantage and any skulduggery could be blamed on the usual suspects with the MSM propaganda machine driving the narrative.
The news of the holes in CPU security has hardly been disappeared–unlike say all the witnesses saying JFK was shot from the front.
Great post Joseph, and I don’t believe it is any coincidence that steam engines are being brought out once again. I also believe it could be a feasibility test. After all, Governments are concerned about power outages in the event of an EMP event from the sun or by other means and also by ‘natural disasters’, and there is legislation addressing this.
Here in the UK when the Post Offices computers are down, you can’t even buy a stamp !
. . . Nostalgia, pride of invention, knowing that it works, and can be done (again), might serve as goals covered in your entry. . . On the outside, restoration of vintage locomotives appears benign enough for the museum and periodic show’n’tell of old time rail contrivances. . .
. . . HO Scale Model Train sets were a favourite hobby of my grandfather in his day. . . Full scale trains were very much a corner stone in moving freight nationwide a century ago, especially, before Eisenhower’s interstate system and trucking took off. . . Rail, Road, Ship, and Air Freight systems share the job today of moving people and freight at an expanded capacity. . .
. . . Familiar with diesel engines, from a mechanics point of view, one of several hats worn, there are a lot of hidden expenses in keeping just one running optimally, not to mention the need for crude oil and its derivatives as well as all of the support systems that allow that single engine to do work (where to begin with such a goliath). . . An advantage is that there is no spark plug required as it uses a very high fuel-air compression ratio to ignite the mixed and heated gases. . . One of the reasons for that typical “knock-knock” sound of one hears near a running diesel engine. . . The timing and maintenance of the fuel injectors is critical. . .
. . . One of the things that spurred a moment of thought was the idea put to task of replacing broken parts with designed workable new parts of vintage design. . . It suggests a significant factory re-tooling effort from a machinist’s point of view or, at least, some sort of conversion. . . Machinist’s re-tooling toward making an old part requires a level of engineering expertise and related support groups. . . Something that’s needed in the manufacturing realm of business anyway. . . It also suggests the need of factory space, currently dormant, getting re-tooled for purpose – the purpose of taking on new design efforts on an industrial size venture. . . That venture (or those ventures) need not end terrestrially based, either. . . Starting with old mass-produced items are probably a cost-effective means to gauge long term ramping up of efforts in industry – a sort of getting re-acquainted with what was effectively accomplished in a short period of time such as would be the case during a war time driven scenario. . . Even a modeling of sorts would be useful for economic trends. . .
. . . Some folks might have come across the production of the “Sperry gyro-compass” that was made by then Chrysler Corporation in the early 1940’s, while reading business and manufacturing history. . . One has been tinkering with the idea of how to re-engage factory space already existent using engineered production methods. . . The gyro-compass, a precision instrument, was such a feat back when even though Chrysler Corporation was in the business of manufacturing cars, trucks, and jeeps then tanks and bomber engines. . . To do this again, not necessarily that old gyro-compass with associated accessories by today’s standards or re-vamping an old steam locomotive to working newness or even tanks and bomber engines, one needs to hone a work force from novice to engineer to expert in a sense, essentially, starting where the nation’s workforce is presently, physically, and intellectually, while using available dormant spaces once used before, and doing what one can initially to streamline, re-invent, and expand production capabilities that would be needed for today’s endeavors. . . It seems more than possible from this side of the monitor. . . It might already be in progress. . .
. . . This business about typewriter’s, though, vintage Remington’s and IBM golf-ball types and the like, suggests a different direction in speculation in the beginning, but is likely to end up on a parallel track with old locomotives and gyro-compasses. . . At any rate, one has become more familiar with those things even if one is still a two-finger key poker. . . There would be a greater loss, if one were to stop hard copy backups. . . Hard drive backups continue as well as the flash drive convenience, but they’re only as reliable as the systems they need for operating those devices. . . A mechanical typewriter one could use again, easily enough, despite still needing to re-ink the ribbons and stock reams of paper for backup prints. . . A steam or diesel locomotive would take some doing, though, unless one owned and operated a train yard, freight line, and tool and die firm for further production and parts. . . Should these gadgets fail, fingers in sand, brush & pigment on a surface, pencil & paper, carvings on malleable material, and chipping stone, even song and verse can still communicate information and knowledge lost to gadgetry. . . One is still on their own when it comes to being the wiser in wisdom. . .
. . . The business of getting from point A to point B, on the other hand might require thinking outside the academician’s stodgy lecture halls. . . Likewise with this communication process and storage recall combination that requires one to use lengthy, linear, and imprecise terminology akin to this thing referred to as language (language conundrum, in my humble opinion). . . Witnessing such things firsthand, from a speculative pretense mind you, beckons the imagination to not only shift to higher gears, but also to go beyond those 6 interrogatories (?’s) if not off planet toward a much different and suited construction plan. . . That’s not to say change an evolving pattern from this familiar terrestrial bipedal form that’s often to easily taken for granted, but definitely to boldly go. . . One would rather have an intergalactic saucer section of the latest Enterprise of Star Trek as one would be able to keep some semblance of one’s current bio-form and culture than biologically conform to a cramped heel-shaped disc or rod configured craft for purpose. . . There are significant benefits from infinite diversity – infinite combinations (IDIC) when survival of the universe’s inhabitants is considered. . . How to do that, . . well, . . some folks have begun working on that trend. . .
. . . Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) from several sources remains a strategic defense initiative while working and building backups and structural integrity into those systems dependent on electricity. . . The power grid needs shoring up (so does plumbing, sanitation, and rapid transit, for that matter). . . Hardening the electric grid began decades ago when massive brownouts started occurring and effecting the northeastern US and Canada. . . Solar flares were also part of that perspective of hardening up. . . Brownouts still occur when storms clash with poorly positioned electric poles and trees lacking distance away from those grid poles. . . More work actually needs to be done to clear grid lines from tree failure, knockdown, fires, and ice storms. . .
. . . Those familiar with military operations and the effects that EMP disruptions have caused also know of the efforts in progress to harden susceptible ground-based electronics and airborne avionics. . . In some ways, when one considers recent cyber-attacks and losses as well as weather related calamities, the potential of similar events occurring seems statistically on the increase. . . Daily news outlets do tend to highlight such situations in real time. . . Less covered are adjacent military systems and support due to security concerns, yet one has to ask, “What about crafty hacks who know the territory as good as the wires and wireless constructs.” . . One was not referring to the usual bipedal hydrophilic uprights as most folks are familiar emulating. . .
. . . In any case, DARPA as well as the ole research and development structures are still busy, but so is the private sector knowing that they, too, deserve part of the action moving forward. . .
Interesting points Richard
Nostalgia.
I think it’s ok to look back. Just don’t stare.
Let’s not forget the PRO LEVEL cutting in the Bay Area the good Doctor reported on.
mic routinely backs up data with archaic (as in impossible to get anymore) technologies. forget where i read in the last few years of missile silos being backed up with floppies. floppies manufactured in large custom lots for one customer and only once. anyone try to get a floppy disc or a floppy drive for themselves lately? know anyone with enough money and quality control and specifications to buy, build or rebuild an entire factory? company? industry? imagine floppies aren’t the only tech being re-upped for duty.
and yeh, as usual i prefer not to agree with walking dead’s worst case scenario. as ever i don’t always get to do what i prefer.
Atlas Shrugged?
Jim St0ne makes a convincing argument that nuke-burst EMP attacks will not fry anything other than very long cable runs, if that. False fears.
However, I just read a sobering comment over at The Saker. Various folk were speculating on what ‘options’ Iran had if Rothschild-types ordered the US neocons to bomb Iranian infrastructure. One commentator noted that fifty people with high-powered rifles and/or RPGs could ‘take-down’ the massive transformers at the heart of the US power-distribution system. Since these transformers have no back-up, the replacements would have to be procured from overseas (mainly China) and it might take years. Outside of whatever generators could be kept online, the US would revert to the 1800s. Fifty people. Hmmm…
So, I could view any coal/oil restorations as late realizations of how vulnerable the US is to ‘asymmetric warfare’, and attempts to have something available if worst came to worst. Transportation would be most important. (It would be interesting to see whether the ‘funding’ for the machine shops and restorations could be traced back to far-sighted individuals or groups…)
I have a manual typewriter buried somewhere in a storage unit, as well as two slide rules. I’m all set… *grin*
sure you are. if memory serves, that terrist attack has already been done in san fran a few years ago. or somewhere in cali. they were successful and disappeared.
it doesn’t much matter if emp attacks are doable or not. what matters is the meme of the day that the public is dumbed down enough to believe when their store shelves are empty and their refrigerators and a/c units don’t work. just like folk today are mostly dumbed down enough to believe that cali and greece had wildfires this year that burned only metals and not wood (unless the wood had metal in it).
not to go into panic setting mode and/or gory details of how upsetting it must have been to be a person near those droned directed energy weapons target zones – especially any persons with metal in their mouths, joints, clothing,….. what’s more pertinent is the confusion and complete ninja cover provided for the attacking conquering force.
anyone buy real estate lately in santa rosa or other parts of cali? or greece? seen what those markets have done to all the previous owners/tenants? and for the new owners? remind anyone of soros’ purchases south of cairo illinois a few years back right after the army corps flooded 3+ states south of cairo. he became the third largest grain producing company over night behind cargill and adm.
only thing better than disaster capitalism for the disaster capitalist is hidden disaster capitalism.
ZDB, there were some articles a while back as to how a fake ‘EMP event’ could be brewed-up: Many ‘modern’ cars/trucks have electronics controlling some part of the engine or fuel flow. Plus, they are internet-connected. All that it would take to ‘brick’ a car/truck would be the right command or ‘software update’. Then, set-off the sirens and announce an EMP event. The sheeple have been pre-conditioned, so will not even question the narrative. (Same for anything electronically-controlled and internet-connected, from refrigerators and computers to power plants…)
I agree… and have the same suspicions. Restoring these old workhorses is a major expense, and there has to be something else behind it.
That wouldn’t be the response to war with Iran, since the US attacking Iran would mean world war.
Also, no it’s not like there are just 10 generating stations in the USA.
So and in fact they weren’t usually designed to move electricity more than a few hundred miles, so the idea that there are 10 big transformers that can be destroyed thereby destroying the system is misleading. Now, you can witness the events of August 2003 for an example of an event cascading from a central node (in that case in eastern Ohio) with ramifications and shutdowns for a few days all the way to New York City.
Then there are Eric Dollard’s more recent claims.
Hi, Lost. Good to see you again. And in the same form!
(1) “That wouldn’t be the response to war with Iran, since the US attacking Iran would mean world war.” Nope. Remember, this is an aerial attack, not a ground invasion. Russia and China would likely make all sorts of angry noises, and provide Iran with various armaments. Iran would be left with the actual ‘response’, probably in an asymmetrical warfare way. (Plus, they would shut-down the Strait of Hormuz and spike oil prices.)
(2) “Also, no it’s not like there are just 10 generating stations in the USA.” True, although I never said generating stations except as individually trying to cope with the nationwide outage. I also never mentioned how many ‘massive transformers at the heart of the US power-distribution system’ there were. That is irrelevant. All that matters is the ability to hit a sizeable number of the big transformers, nearly simultaneously. (And large generators are usually accompanied by large transformers…)
(3) “…so the idea that there are 10 big transformers that can be destroyed thereby destroying the system is misleading.” Again, I never said 10 big transformers; you did. I suspect that there are a few hundred big-enough transformers that their loss would seriously compromise the electrical-distribution system. Let’s say four hundred. If you had a pre-emplaced, knowledgeable, ready-to-die-for-your-cause cadre of zealots spread throughout the country, that would not be too hard. 400 divided by 50 is only 8 transformers per person. Given the element of surprise and a can-do spirit (and the right cached weaponry), each ‘warrior’ could probably destroy that number before being killed. (And that leaves out the pre-positioned IEDs…) Sadly, the US has little preparation for an internal attack of this nature…
goshawks:
No, any significant US bombing of Iran would mean world war. (And the US would be in the wrong, so have few allies.)
The reason I picked 10 massive transformers, is that you said a team of 50–that’s a team of 5 per transformer–if they wish to accomplish anything. For say 400 transformers, all on the same day, you’d need a team 2000. Then 50 caliber rifles aren’t going to do more than damage a couple of replaceable parts in most cases. Most of those parts are already in warehouses in the USA.
As for pre positioned IEDs (just call them bombs) that assumes no one working for a power company ever looks for such things at transformer stations.
On of the striking things about all the preposterous “answers” for why the World Trade Center turned to dust (mini nukes is one, but there was no radiation spike in Manhattan) is how misleading they are. Now J. Wood is correct regards end the effect that turned the towers to dust (albeit she seems mislead by a bogus video of the Pentagon), but she wisely makes no claims about the source of the effect. And frankly she’s wrong to imply it’s something like the technology John Hutchinson is famous for. Those effects can be generated by other means–they are indeed both working with the same medium though.
@Lost Respectfully, I disagree with you on the US loosing allies if she attacks Iran in an unjust strike. Iraq WMD’s? The Britts, France and the US bombing Syria on bogus claims? We need to understand that it is no longer rogue nations, crazy administrations or entangling alliances that are the threat to the world. NGO’s are the real threat. NGO’s are the puppet masters who have control over the West’s elected officials. The US and her allies will attack whom ever these masters tell them to.
NGO’s wielding this sort of power is scary for obvious reasons, but to me they are like an insurgency, boarderless, in many ways anonymous, and without allegiance to any group of people other than their own.
As for IED’s being fielded at sub-stations and the like, this would be an easy task. IED’s are usually small and easily concealed. Hell, simply placing them while one has the cover of darkness would buy a Cell plenty of time to set up the charges.
Ronin:
“NGO’s are the real threat. NGO’s are the puppet masters who have control over the West’s elected officials. The US and her allies will attack whom ever these masters tell them to.”
Avoid the coded speak.
Then no, NGOs didn’t encourage the French and US and UK to destroy Libya as a functioning state. Nor did NGOs cause the US to back ISIS (later) and Al Qaeda in the Syrian “civil” war.
No, IEDs are not all powerful.
Well, Lost is again ‘lost’:
(1) Neither Russia nor China will respond with anything but angry noises to an aerial strike by Israel/US/Sauds. (Plus, contributing plenty of ‘supplies’.) IMHO, both R&C have decided to play the waiting game and let the bankster empire implode due to debt and the moving of countries away from the dollar. R&C would be forced to respond to a successful ground invasion, but that ain’t gonna happen…
(2) My original comment stated: “One commentator noted that fifty people with high-powered rifles and/or RPGs could ‘take-down’ the massive transformers at the heart of the US power-distribution system.” Note that there was no mention of how many ‘massive transformers’ would be hit; that was 50 people; period. The later 400 number was a guesstimate on the conservative side. 400 transformers divided by 50 people is still 8 transformers per operative. Very doable.
(3) My original comment stated: “high-powered rifles and/or RPGs.” I am assuming that – if these operatives were willing to give their lives for this endeavor – they would have looked at the drawings/specs of the transformers and known exactly what parts were easily replaceable and what parts were fundamental and/or would result in a ‘boom’, and then go for those. If they were going to die in the attempt, they would be ‘pros’, not amateurs…
(4) My original comment stated: “Given the element of surprise and a can-do spirit (and the right cached weaponry), each ‘warrior’ could probably destroy that number before being killed. (And that leaves out the pre-positioned IEDs…)” The IEDs were extra, not fundamental to the proposition. However, IEDs are different from bombs in that there is intent for clever concealment; that is why they were so damaging in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is doubtful that run-of-the-mill transformer technicians do a formal ‘sweep’ hourly/daily of their grounds for concealed explosives…
(5) It was also clever around how you threw-in from nowhere “why the World Trade Center turned to dust (mini nukes is one, but there was no radiation spike in Manhattan).” We had a long discussion on how the mini-nukes were in deep in the basements and thus were quickly-covered by debris (leaving no radiation spike in the air), how soil samples collected from the debris showed radioactive isotopes only produced in nukes, how many workers on the site proceeded to succumb to cancers that were similar to radiation-induced cancers, how the debris-pit temperatures stayed super-hot for months, etc. All those are factual; not sure why you are trying to slip-in your spinning at this late date…
goshawks:
“IMHO, both R&C have decided to play the waiting game and let the bankster empire implode due to debt and the moving of countries away from the dollar.”
Debt is not a significant problem for the US, the problem is for public consumption–so people will do things out of fear. Figure the US and UK are trading against something far greater than the capacity to make gold in industrial quantities with ease. Something developed really starting in the later 19th century, albeit the gold thing would have been known back then too–all around the world.
“400 transformers divided by 50 people is still 8 transformers per operative. Very doable.”
Not at all doable within the space of 20 hours. The movie “Telefon” (which takes place over weeks or months) is fiction.
“We had a long discussion on how the mini-nukes were in deep in the basements and thus were quickly-covered by debris (leaving no radiation spike in the air), how soil samples collected from the debris showed radioactive isotopes only produced in nukes, how many workers on the site proceeded to succumb to cancers that were similar to radiation-induced cancers, “
Okay so you really know nothing of the physics used to turn the WTC towers into dust. It wasn’t mini-nukes. Again: there was no radiation spike in Manhattan that day. People checked on the day of. You really need to read more from people like J. Wood. But certainly don’t limit yourself to her, find others who’ve described similar results in widely distributed papers, books, etc over the last 120 years. (And I’m sure there are examples going back well before then too.)
“how the debris-pit temperatures stayed super-hot for months, “
They, the pits, didn’t; this is an invention to cover up the results of the physics used to turn the towers into dust. Claims like there was massive heat for months are untrue. People wearing normal clothes entered basements and subways and the PATH train station quickly–within a few days–no matter what you think some satellite photo says. Those were possibly consciously doctored to distract, or more likely the science used to generate the effect, which dustified the towers, resulted in false thermal image sensor readings from space. The fact that you post such claims about mini nukes suggests a motive other than discovering how the WTC was destroyed. That motive would be distraction from explaining what occurred.
(Kind of like the claims a Sufi from Argentina shot JFK from a box car in the rail yard 1000 feet away at the behest of Castro–but hey at least the bullet travel direction matches the widely documented, at the time, fact that JFK was shot from the front.)
“All those are factual; not sure why you are trying to slip-in your spinning at this late date…”
Because what you’ve posted are counterfactual inventions used to coverup the science, yes science, behind the towers’ dustification. Yes, quite certainly, other refinements of this same science could readily, and I mean readily, make gold out of copper–or radioactive isotopes out of “stable” elements.
Lost: “Debt is not a significant problem for the US…” What planet are you from? US debt is so out of control that Congress is not even pretending to want to work it down. (Only the banksters benefit from the interest on massive debt.) US has so much debt – backed by nothing tangible – that other nations are sensing a debt-repudiation or debt-haircut coming and are starting to balk at even touching the dollar. Russia & China are just planning to ride this implosion out, with the US coming-out as a humbler nation. The only way a world war would get started is if the banksters desire it: “My sons…” and all that.
On the WTC (which you inserted into the conversation; hmm), I know about the Woods conjecture. I even am sympathetic to the observation about the melted aluminum in the row of cars. However, I will stick to the mini-nukes, as they hew closest to known physics. Whenever the PTB decide to ‘leak’ the new physics, I will be listening (and listening for disinfo)…
Lost: “Again: there was no radiation spike in Manhattan that day.” This is why I believe you are some kind of disinfo agent. Over several conversations, you steadily refuse to recognize the distinction between an airborne radiation spike and a debris-contained radiation signature. Keep it up; other readers will notice this blatant ‘oversight’ and start to suspect the motives…
goshawks:
“Lost: “Debt is not a significant problem for the US…” What planet are you from? US debt is so out of control that Congress is not even pretending to want to work it down.”
You’re falling for the fear. Exactly the point I made. Debt is being used to keep you and others from addressing problems in the wider world.
“US has so much debt – backed by nothing tangible”
No, what backs the US debt, and as I said, the UK’s, is quite tangible. However, you don’t know of it.
“I know about the Woods conjecture. I even am sympathetic to the observation about the melted aluminum in the row of cars.”
Not melted aluminum–suggesting you’re not real familiar with Wood. Also hardly conjecture her point that the effects look like what Huchinson has been demonstrating since the later 1970s.
“Lost: “Again: there was no radiation spike in Manhattan that day.” This is why I believe you are some kind of disinfo agent. Over several conversations, you steadily refuse to recognize the distinction between an airborne radiation spike and a debris-contained radiation signature”.
Believe whatever makes you feel better about the worldview you’re reciting, there was no radiation spike in Manhattan, and the “strange isotopes” at the WTC cite are easily explained by the so called Huchinson effect. You really need to read better science. Had there been a radiation spike in the pit, it would have “leaked” out unto the rest of Manhattan, Jersey City, Hoboken, downtown Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and would very well have showed up as some form of airborne radiation spike in the days following–but there was no such spike in said radiation. Therefore my point contains no contradictions, and completely accounts for radioactive isotopes that you insist have to have come from a nuclear weapon–they didn’t.
I’ll give you a hint, since you didn’t take up the Hutchinson one: Starting about 120 years ago, Gustav Le Bon repeatedly demonstrated induced radioactivity in stable elements, and he most certainly did small quantities of low energy transmutations. His science work was widely published and translated. Various mainstream scientists certainly read him.
(Now true, his racist and sexist sociology was also widely respected as a justification for extreme abuses in the Congo. In the 1990s, this work was re-popularized in business management theory–it being an excuse for trashing rules and impoverishing millions. But his lesser known science is vastly more interesting.)
Stop assuming the “fixed” periodic chart of elements is anything more than a very helpful model. In the real world in which you live, not so much in which you spend much time pondering, all of those elements described exist in an open system–one that interacts with in fact all of reality. In layman’s terms, a tree falling in the forest, with no one there to hear it, is in fact “heard” by all of reality throughout the universe(s).
Lost: “Had there been a radiation spike in the pit, it would have ‘leaked’ out unto the rest of Manhattan, Jersey City, Hoboken, downtown Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and would very well have showed up as some form of airborne radiation spike in the days following–but there was no such spike in said radiation.”
(Dear readers, please note how Lost has ‘re-directed’ the conversation away from the original topic. A classic disinfo tactic. Sigh.)
First of all, the explosions occurred deep below street level. Then, they were covered with floor upon floor of of WTC debris, compacted by the building itself. Couldn’t ask for a better ‘sealant’. There would be no airborne spike…
Second and probably most important, Lost appears to have assumed both nuclear (nuke) and thermonuclear bomb-design has stagnated since the 1950s. Early nuclear bombs had a sizable uranium or plutonium core or ‘pit’. The explosion vaporized any unconsumed pit material and spread it out; hence the high fallout levels of the time.
Early thermonuclear bomb designs emphasized light weight (since they were aircraft carried) and the largest possible yield. This led to ‘simple’ designs with a large ‘pit’ to assure that all the hydrogen was fusioned. In turn, this led to any unconsumed ‘pit’ material being vaporized and dispersed, leading again to massive radioactive fallout.
In the decades since Lost stopped reading, bomb-design has shifted. Nukes have stayed static; just big nukes or mini-nukes, all with fallout consequences. However, thermonuclear bomb design has diversified since Lost stopped reading. Bombs which were never going to be carried on aircraft did not need to be light, and therefore ‘simple’. So, more complex designs were explored. One branch led to minimizing the core size, to having the trigger completely consumed in the explosion. This led to reduced radioactive fallout. In essence, the small pit became the limiter to the fusion, leading to a nuke-sized ‘boom’. So, redesigned thermonuclear weapons became usable as the equivalent of mini-nukes: same-size destructibility and minimum residual radioactivity. This modern design is what Lost is ‘ignoring’.
So, woo-woo physics or modern thermonuclear bomb design. The choice is left to the reader…
goshawks:
“First of all, the explosions occurred deep below street level. Then, they were covered with floor upon floor of of WTC debris, compacted by the building itself. Couldn’t ask for a better ‘sealant’. There would be no airborne spike…”
No actually, that’s not really where there evidence for explosions occurring that day shows up. And far more important, people were all over the sub-basements within a few days of the towers’ dustification. Nor was there ANY FLOOR pancaking. The floors disappeared.
“In the decades since Lost stopped reading, bomb-design has shifted. Nukes have stayed static; just big nukes or mini-nukes, all with fallout consequences. However, thermonuclear bomb design has diversified since Lost stopped reading. Bombs which were never going to be carried on aircraft did not need to be light, and therefore ‘simple’. So, more complex designs were explored. One branch led to minimizing the core size, to having the trigger completely consumed in the explosion. This led to reduced radioactive fallout. In essence, the small pit became the limiter to the fusion, leading to a nuke-sized ‘boom’. So, redesigned thermonuclear weapons became usable as the equivalent of mini-nukes: same-size destructibility and minimum residual radioactivity. This modern design is what Lost is ‘ignoring’.”
Not one part of this explains the dustification of the whole towers–all the way to the 110th floor. Whereas the technology I’m describing does.
“Bombs which were never going to be carried on aircraft did not need to be light, and therefore ‘simple.” Because the A-bombs dropped form planes on Japan were so light. /s
Figure it this way, and I suspect you’ll do all you can to avoid this line of thinking:
The bridge in Genoa that just collapsed was very likely destroyed with similar technology. No one in his right mind believes the official lightening strike story. (And a bridge that was simply in disrepair, and therefore failed, would show other massive failures first.)
You really need to read more on the effect that Wood has documented. 700 foot, 200 meter, steel framing doesn’t simply turn to dust via anything like you describe.
And if you want to turn something to powder with exotic weapons, then there is likely a big reason to get the whole tower to shake, really hum, with conventional explosives. So yes, there were explosives used, but conventional, and not all all for the reason you suppose.
(This is fun; I can keep it up forever…)
Lost: “And far more important, people were all over the sub-basements within a few days of the towers’ dustification.”
Blatant lies. Joseph Goebbels quality lies. The ‘sub-basements’ no longer existed. They were squashed flat; those that remained after the so-called ‘mini-nukes’ blew away the foundational supports. That is actually funny, in a sick kind of way…
Lost: “Nor was there ANY FLOOR pancaking. The floors disappeared.”
Blatant lies. Joseph Goebbels quality lies. Go to ANY video of the WTC collapses and you will see floors pancaking because the foundational structure has been removed. That is actually funny, in a sick kind of way…
And bringing-in the Genoa bridge collapse as Yet Another move to redirect the conversation. Funny. Lost, man, you have to up your Game…
Maybe it’s not so much about an EMP attack, but if Yellowstone decides to erupt, probably sending a ripple effect to other zones.
While not likely to happen anytime soon, steam locomotives would be the least of our worries. What would the planet come to without Israel’s attack dog threatening the entire planet?
Well, grabbing onto this gossamer fine thread of speculation, perhaps the military is funding the reconditioning of steam locomotives to support COG and the defense of the USA from whatever threat that is perceived. Warren AFB, an ICBM facility, is immediately adjacent to the Union Pacific roundhouse, turntable and machine shop.
Yup…. good point!
ICBMs are primitive weapons unlikely to be used–at least on anything like short notice. (This includes sub-based ICBMs.)
Just when you think a technology is obsolete it makes a come back as if resurrected from the dead. If it works why abandon it see if you can tweak it for future use there are times when the old-fashioned can be more reliable than something new.
Didn’t German security services switch to typewriters back in 2014 due to computer network hacking from the NSA? Not sure if they actually followed through on that…
Would definitely love to hear the sound of steam locomotives and their whistles again!
I don’t recall but I DO recall the German BND being majorly upset about the NSA hacking Merkel’s telephone. And I also recall that Lufthansa did a major overhaul of its Boeing aircraft either shortly before or after 9/11.
Yep, that was long before 9/11 (late 70s or early 80s). Lufthansa had a major problem with 747s being delivered that had ‘enhanced’ autopilots which could be directed from afar. Lufthansa pulled the Boeing autopilots out, and – at considerable expense – developed their own. No pushback there…
(Boeing autopilots have likely gotten much more enhanced since then. One of my friends who works in an electronic-warfare capacity refused to fly to a semi-recent meeting. He took the train across country, instead…)
I too have a friend/former colleague that refuses to fly (commercially). He works deep within the Signals Intelligence underworld. To add to the allure of the tale, he also refuses to own a vehicle that isn’t a manual with a mechanical emergency brake. The more you know…
I’m not sure about Germany, but here in America, specifically Wright Patterson AFB, Lenovo computers were ripped out due to hardware concerns. This was a MAJOR deal that went grossly unreported.
Thanks, Ronin; I had not heard about that. (Worked at Wright-Pat long, long ago…)
I’ve been toying with the idea of building my own solar steam plant. However, if I purchased an off the shelf boiler for a hobby steamboat that runs on coal. A 10kW unit weighs in at just over 1000lbs. Not a lot of power to weight ratio there. In my youth, I worked for a company that rebuilt and refitted the MS Queen River Boat. It was a working HP/LP steam piston, paddle wheel propulsion system. I’ve worked on a variety of utility level solar thermal and Stirling Engines. So, for the RR’s to be looking at returning to steam propulsion is very strange indeed. Going back to stacked diesel mechanical propulsion would make a lot more sense. Unless, petroleum is going to be a problem and coal was not. BTW, a friend of mine’s father operated a coal to liquids Skunk Works for Chevron in UT back in the 70’s. He routinely blew the doors off of other vehicles at the drag strip. Because, coal derived liquid fuels were that much higher in BTU content. A planet wide electrical malfunction, would be one of the few reasons to return to steam propulsion on a large scale..
Could be a great way to proof out LENR steam generation tech too…
And for that matter, is the “steam shop” in Wyoming present electronic and computer-drive, or analog? If it ever becomes analog, there will REALLY be something going on…
I agree… It’s really rather breathtaking, and sobering, to realize these engines were designed by draftsmen at tables with slide rules and pencils. No computer aided design here.
Doc… draftsmen at tables & slide rules & pencils … was/is Who we are 🙂 THAT …is “our” Ace in the hole cuz “they” are coming back. the old ways,R “our” …ways & NOT “their” …ways lol folks draftsmen at tables & slide rules & pencils …it’s down to the very core , hell yea ! down ta “our” very freakin … DNA “WE” R breathtaking ,awesome beings ! & the stuff “we” can/could come up wit ….well its outta this world 🙂 Damn man the “stuff” coming down ….folks this IS “our” TIME I believe WE are liv’in on the cusp of the Greatest “time” in “our” History ….our time Steady ,steady hell this is gonna b fun …. Stop all this …they’re doing this ,they’re doing that shit ….WHAT IS important is …what r u gonna do ? Huh …really ,”it” Is the only thin “we” …control , right? & lol steady steady ….this shit is 🙂 our time folks ,not there’s hehe
I remember in “Battlestar Galactica Mark II” how BG was designed with everything analog; no digital systems if at all possible. Later Battlestars forgot the lessons of confronting an advanced, digital-based culture and paid the price…
… or you build a lot of underground bases w/their own power systems available. If you know you have the technology to induce a solar flare on demand. And if you know; they know. And they now incorporates AI.
One might say that some of those in-the-know,
have been railroaded to the outer rings
of that circle of knowledge.
I have two things to add to this piece.
1] A colleague of mine has a brother who works on restoring these old locomotives. I will probe him to see if he gets a different vibe than the official narrative on these projects.
2] A few months back, another colleague of mine was talking about a strange property purchased that had ties to Union Pacific, but seemed much more, “off that books” than normal. He is a “like minded” person, and noticed the very militaristic appearance of a building that had been erected on his route to work. It was only after some digging, that he found it to be a UP property. Basically a commercial property was purchased and leveled. In its place, a massive solid concrete wall (tall and thick) was erected around the property, with very controlled entry. The building that was built within these walls, could be described as your typical data center type construction. It is nearly entirely underground and very bunker like. It gets even weirder though, it was purchased through a shell corporation a few days after this company was set up. You can tie the names on the corporation to Union Pacific. It is almost like it was purchased off the books. Now, this could be my own high octane speculation, and perhaps just an easy way to allocate and depreciate an asset from an accounting perspective. But this property, is extremely odd and highly controlled access. With all of that said, I can see from an auditing and record keeping perspective, UP would need to maintain a LOT of records on what they are hauling (bill of laden(s), HazMat documentation, safety records, etc.), but one would think it would be significantly cheaper and with less liability to outsource data storage both digital and physical.
I live in the Omaha area, which happens to be where UP’s headquarters is.
As I recall, Union Pacific’s steam shop in Cheyenne is mostly off limits to the public except during those “railroad heritage” days or whatever they call them. But yes, something is “up.”
Do you ever look at a YouTube site called Virtual Railfan Dr. Farrell? Whenever I get homesick I can watch the trains go through my old stomping ground of Ashland, Va. cool!
I don’t watch many, as I haven’t time, but I have watched for news of these old steam locomotives being bought, moved, repaired, and at first I was simply curious and thought this was a bit of fun. But as more and more were purchased, including the old 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, and then moved from Los Angeles to Cheyenne, I began to think much more was going on than fun and games.
Our electrical grid, which used to be one all encompassing grid, has been broken up into many smaller grids. At one time the entire grid was synchronized to the same frequencies, allowing power to be transferred wherever it needed to go to compensate for outages. That can no longer happen. So it seems, that we are being manipulated into third world status in many ways or they are planning on taking the grids down in various areas for some other reason. One can only guess what that reason might be, but its bodes ill for 99.9% of us I would imagine.
With 21 trillion of missing money and 21 trillion in national debt since the late 90’s, someone is doing some serious profit taking leaving our nation to descend into third world status; our infrastructure crumbling around us; and industries shipped overseas.
This has to be deliberate. It would appear the globalists are abandoning the West; deliberately destroying it with “refugees”; and putting their money behind the East for their NWO with it’s BRI. The grand experiment with self governance has long been over and they are getting around to burying the corpse. We just need one more world war to finish it off and solidify their tyranny.
Agree with Walkingdead. The US is in slow car crash mode and its decay is engineered in part. Most US citizens don’t travel outside their state let alone the country’s border so have no idea just how much advanced the east is in comparison. Some of the Eurasian countries that most people won’t have heard of and would have thought of as backward are really quite impressive and it’s very much kept out of the MSM. It’s as if they don’t want people to know.
Completely agree with @WalkingDead on this. I’ve been thinking for some time, that much of this “missing money” has gone to the east. If one really looks at China’s One Belt project, the writing is on the wall. Eurasia and Africa are going to be the hotspot for investors to pour their money and reap massive returns. The elites are going to go where the money is at, and more importantly where the money is going to be made.
As Catherine Fitts has said many times, these corporations have been laundering money out of America and thus, the people for a long time. I’m hedging my bet that its gone east and/or to the SSP, which ironically enough, seems to have also brought China into the fold.
What I think is grossly over looked is how long China has been a MAJOR power. Throughout written history, China has been an economic and trading powerhouse. Many just seem to think of China and visualize rice patties and a primitive people. Perhaps that has been a psyop by design?
The grid has been privatized like the governments – and anything still public, is in the 4-profit crosshairs, which triggers stripping those assets till dead in the water economically.
It’s been taken away underground,
figuratively & literally,
by ways of various tracks, avenues & measures.
Some went East
Some went West
Taken by those who
Flew the cuckoo’s nest of leadership.
No, the US electric grid was never one big unified thing.
Deregulation pretended it was easy to send power across a thousand miles, it’s not.
Reaganonics (pursued by plenty of “Democrats” like Obama and Clinton) is responsible for turning the US into a banana republic.
Yep
The state of Texas has its very own.
Miss the good old days where utilities were under public power/control. by far the biggest public utility that is private: BANKS.
If that is supposed to be a post EMP transport system, it will be reserved for whatever is considered important. Therefor, there will be little other traffic on the rails. so if they train personnel on the old monsters, they might as well train personnell in switching railway switches manually.
That’s my point… the old manual semaphor systems would have to be put back into place, and small railhouses for the people operating them. So we’ll see.
True. We learned to work those slide rules pretty fast in high school in the 50s. Wish I had stayed with math instead of going the easy route of BA and LLB. db
Not at all clear how an EMP attack would put a diesel electric locomotive out of action.
Magnets and electro magnets aren’t gonna just stop working.
Networks, some power networks, yes, and especially computers–in some cases permanently.
I think that would depend on the nature of the attack. Phase conjugation could take out many types of equipment, fast neutrons virtually anything (including steam locomotives I would imagine, as it would be like hitting them with a shotgun blast of minute pellets).
So basically an entirely different weapon, or a very very specialized version of an EMP.
Not many parties have anything like that.
Hahahaha, thank goodness I got my fair chance to ride on those steam engines while I was a little girl travel between Canton to Shanghai, it was fun, the train stop EVERY stop, and we got to buy fruits and all kind of local hand made traditional snacks.
The down side, during one of the ride, we were extremely close to the engine head, each time window opens, our face turn black!
My father worked for union Pacific in Omaha and I got to ride the train for free until I turned 18. I have great memories also!
Love the old locomotives…they have some nostalgia…
The dream of the pneumatic tube will never die (3 min. video)
https://youtu.be/sd58w0CXQrM
Great video on the pneumatic tube. What happens to the VidChats if all goes South? Will we have to develop a global ‘Can & Strings’ communication system? Living in Native American country, perhaps Dr. Farrell will have to answer the VidChat question with smoke signals?!
I wonder what G it will create during the ride, I don’t like extreme high speed, so no, I don’t like roller coaster 😛 And I wonder what type of regulation they have to post if these really become reality, like pregnant woman will definitely shouldn’t be allow to ride on one of these thing.