Tag: rail

New Train Hall Opens at Penn Station, Echoing Building’s Former Glory

The Moynihan Train Hall, with glass skylights and 92-foot-high ceilings, will open Jan. 1 as an area for Amtrak and Long Island Railroad riders. The New York Times: For more than half a century, New Yorkers have trudged through the crammed platforms, dark hallways and oppressively low ceilings of Pennsylvania Station, the busiest and perhaps most miserable train hub in North…

How Europe’s Night Trains Came Back From the Dead

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: [O]ver the past decade, much of Europe’s night train network has been cut. 2013 and 2014 saw the culling of lines from Paris to Madrid, Rome and Barcelona; Amsterdam to Prague and Warsaw; and Berlin to Paris and Kiev. For many, it seemed the end of the line was nigh. But recently there…

Burger-Flipping Robot ‘Flippy’ Gets New Test at White Castle

Remember Flippy, the burger-flipping robot who was fired for being too slow? Since then he’s been busy — and his robotic arm just landed a test gig flipping burgers in a White Castle restaurant in Chicago, reports Mashable:
Since its unveiling in 2018, Flippy has cooked more than 40,000 pounds of fried food — including 9,000 sandwiches at LA’s Dodger Stadium, the…

California Set To Require Zero-Emissions Trucks

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Rebuffing strong opposition from industry, California is expected to adopt a landmark rule on Thursday that requires more than half of all trucks sold in the state to be zero-emissions by 2035, a move that is set to improve local air quality, rein in greenhouse gas emissions and sharply curtail…

How Intel is Changing the Future of Power Supplies With Its ATX12VO Spec

“We don’t often talk about power supplies, but Intel’s new ATX12VO spec — that’s an ‘O’ for ‘Oscar,’ not a zero — will start appearing soon in pre-built PCs from OEMs and system integrators, and it represents a major change in PSU design,” reports PC World. “The ATX12VO spec removes voltage rails from the power supply, all in a bid to…

The Case For Portland-To-Vancouver High-Speed Rail

At the Cascadia Rail Summit outside Seattle, a fledgling scheme to bring high-speed rail from Portland to Vancouver found an enthusiastic reception. Gregory Scruggs writes via CityLab: Only 175 miles separate Portland from Seattle. Then it’s another 140 miles north to Vancouver, British Columbia. The three Pacific Northwest cities, which together form the Cascadia megaregion, are currently served by Amtrak service…

Awesome nightscape photos from New Mexico’s Very Large Array

Observatories make great locales for nightscape photography. Tips from an astrophotographer’s trip to the Very Large Array in New Mexico to help you plan an observatory astrophotography adventure – plus awesome photos. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nightscape-photos-very-large-array-vla-observatory…

Google’s Sidewalk Labs Leaked Document Reveals Company’s Early Vision For Data Collection, Tax Powers, Criminal Justice

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Globe and Mail: A confidential Sidewalk Labs document from 2016 lays out the founding vision of the Google-affiliated development company, which included having the power to levy its own property taxes, track and predict people’s movements and control some public services. The document, which The Globe and Mail has seen, also describes how…

Is Air Travel Really Bad For the Climate?

“The best way to get oneself somewhere with the least impact on the climate is a lot more complex than it may seem at first glance,” writes Slashdot reader Dan Drollette (who is also the deputy editor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists). Slashdot reader Lasrick also submitted their report. A few excerpts:
– For a short distance taking a train…