Trains

[PorkChop]

I see yet another train derailment yesterday this time in Wisconsin sending a couple of the cars into the Mississippi River. They had batteries on board but supposedly everything is intact.

Seems like this is the fifth or sixth train derailment in the last two months. Not sure how often they actually happen but they’ve been on the news a lot. Any conspiracy theories out there?

[Deltaman]

Seems odd we've had so many, and with some of our younger generation so hell bent on upending our country, it would not surprise me to find that some amount of sabotage is going on, kind of like we saw on some of the power stations.

[SpinnerMan]

I see similar numbers in a variety of sources.

https://news.yahoo.com/many-train-derailments-us-2023-162348009.html

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year.

That's almost 5 per day. There are a lot of trains and therefore accidents are fairly common although far less than truck transport. Pipelines are the best for things you can ship that way. Trains are second best. Truck wayyyy behind.

We ship a lot of really nasty stuff. Occasionally shit is unfortunately going to happen. The rules and designs for shipping nasty stuff do a pretty good job of keeping bad accidents pretty rare, but there are just too many for Murphy to not on occassion have his day where everything that can go wrong does and at the worst possible time.

I think it is the summer of the shark all over again.

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

The Summer of the Shark refers to the coverage of shark attacks by American news media in the summer of 2001. The sensationalist coverage of shark attacks began in early July following the Fourth of July weekend shark attack on 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast, and continued almost unabated—despite no evidence for an actual increase in attacks—until the September 11 terrorist attacks shifted the media's attention away from beaches. The Summer of the Shark has since been remembered as an example of tabloid television perpetuating a story with no real merit beyond its ability to draw ratings.

In terms of absolute minutes of television coverage on the three major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—shark attacks were 2001's third "most important" news story prior to September 11

According to the International Shark Attack File, there were 76 shark attacks that occurred in 2001, lower than the 85 attacks documented in 2000

The so-called news has been nearly completely useless as a source of useful information for quite some time if they ever were. Everything requires actually doing your homework and who has time for that beyond a few things that interest them?

[PorkChop]

I see similar numbers in a variety of sources.

https://news.yahoo.com/many-train-derailments-us-2023-162348009.html

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics records 54,539 train derailments between 1990 to 2021, an average of 1,704 per year.

That's almost 5 per day. There are a lot of trains and therefore accidents are fairly common although far less than truck transport. Pipelines are the best for things you can ship that way. Trains are second best. Truck wayyyy behind.

We ship a lot of really nasty stuff. Occasionally shit is unfortunately going to happen. The rules and designs for shipping nasty stuff do a pretty good job of keeping bad accidents pretty rare, but there are just too many for Murphy to not on occassion have his day where everything that can go wrong does and at the worst possible time.

I think it is the summer of the shark all over again.

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

The Summer of the Shark refers to the coverage of shark attacks by American news media in the summer of 2001. The sensationalist coverage of shark attacks began in early July following the Fourth of July weekend shark attack on 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast, and continued almost unabated—despite no evidence for an actual increase in attacks—until the September 11 terrorist attacks shifted the media's attention away from beaches. The Summer of the Shark has since been remembered as an example of tabloid television perpetuating a story with no real merit beyond its ability to draw ratings.

In terms of absolute minutes of television coverage on the three major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—shark attacks were 2001's third "most important" news story prior to September 11

According to the International Shark Attack File, there were 76 shark attacks that occurred in 2001, lower than the 85 attacks documented in 2000

The so-called news has been nearly completely useless as a source of useful information for quite some time if they ever were. Everything requires actually doing your homework and who has time for that beyond a few things that interest them?

Thank you that is what I was wondering if it happens quite a bit and we just don’t hear about it. Just seems like the news picks a topic and then they start airing stories about it all the time to shift focus.