Meshtastic

WisMesh Tag

Jack got hisself a new toy - a Meshtastic radio, about $50.  It's a little smaller than a smartphone. The four dots you see are for a USB cable with a magnetic connector. Connect it to your phone (does it have Bluetooth?) and you can send text messages over the Mesh Network. The Mesh Network is made up of whoever has a similar radio within range, which can be a few miles. Popular with some Neighborhood Emergency Teams. These mesh radios don't use the cell phone network and data is encrypted, so transmission is reasonable secure.

The big problem with these things is you need other people to also be using them. If you and your mother are the only ones with these radios and you are fifty miles apart, this thing isn't going to help you.

Meshtastic Map

I kind of expect them to be popular in war zones since Telegram uses the cell phone network and Starlink depends on Elon's mood.

East Side Snarl

Railed: It’s the most annoying traffic jam in Portland. (Whitney McPhie and Sophia Mick)

I thought getting to South Waterfront was the most fouled up road mess in Portland. Seems I was wrong (unbelievable, I know). Willamette Week tells us that the eastside has a real problem that makes my complaints about South Waterfront sound like entitled white boy whining:

It’s the Most Annoying Traffic Jam in Portland. Here’s How to Fix It by Garrett Andrews

Long trains moving extremely slowly equal maddening waits for drivers on the Central Eastside.

Problem is the railroad cuts the eastside in two and there are only a few place to cross it that are not grade level crossings, which means at rush hour those few crossings are going to be jammed as well.

Here's some more pics from the story:

The railroad crossings at Southeast 11th and 12th avenues. (Brian Burk)

A Union Pacific train passes through the Central Eastside. (Brian Burk)

Portland Railroads

The portion of eastside of Portland near the Willamette River is full of railroad tracks. It's hard to get a clear view of the situation. If you zoom out you see orange lines running from top to bottom. 

Union Pacific Albina Yard Portland
(black blotch on previous map)

Zoom in to see how many tracks and you can only see five percent of the line.

Jakarta is Sinking

Jakarta's land subsidence

I knew a large portion of the Netherlands was below sea level, which is crazy, but the Dutch, at least in most other respects, seem to be fairly level headed. And you don't hear them crying about it, so if they want to indulge in a bit of crazy and live in a place that ought to be underwater, well, go ahead on. I'll let you.

Jakarta & southeast Asia

But I kind of thought it was only place in the world like that. Well, there is Death Valley (280 feet below sea level) and the Dead Sea (1400 feet below sea level), but they are not right up against an ocean that could flood them in a moments notice. In any case Holland isn't the only place. Jakarta Indonesia is slowing sinking and large parts of it are now below sea level. They noticed this a while back and started building a sea wall in 2014.

This video from the Drop A Pin YouTube channel got me started. He uses a curious format. He asks a question of like two dozen people who all get the answer wrong before he finally finds someone who gets it right. He sucked me in the first few dozen videos I saw, but now I skip to the end to find the answer.

Technocracy

Technate of America

Technocracy was a political movement in the USA in the 1930s that aimed to put technologists in control. Technology is not yet in total control, but it certainly has us fenced in with roads, powerlines, train tracks and prison walls. Bombthrower got me started.

Technocracy Rally, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California

Technocracy Inc. has a website, but the above picture is almost the entire content.

Gulf Stream

Latitude & Temperature

East coast of North America is 10 to 20 degrees cooler than west coast of Europe.

via daily timewaster

Map Distortion

Truesize Brazil versus Greenland

Truesize interactive website allows you to compare the actual size of countries.

Tree Cover Density and Human Settlements in North America

Tree Cover Density and Human Settlements in North America

It's Getting Lighter

Daylight Gained

Via daily timewaster

Brief History of Submarine Cables

Internet Vs Ocean: the essential wires we never think about
Jay and Mark

Submarine Cable Map

Great Hedge of India

The route of the 1870s Inland Customs Line (red) and Great Hedge (green)

More weirdness from 19th century British India. Giant hedge grown from prickly, thorny and otherwise nasty plants.

From Wikipedia:

The Inland Customs Line, incorporating the Great Hedge of India (or Indian Salt Hedge), was a customs barrier built by the British colonial rulers of India to prevent smuggling of salt from coastal regions in order to avoid the substantial salt tax.

Via Bayou Renaissance Man

Other Side of the World

Greater Eurasia

Drone Attack

Drone Attack
Area shone is maybe 500 miles from top to bottom

Russia claims that Ukraine launched almost 100 drones in an attack on Putin's residence in Novogrod. They also claim they destroyed all those drones before they reached their target.

I have no evidence of any of this. I will say it seems plausible, both that Ukraine launched such an attack and that they were foiled.

No, the reason I am posting this is because of the map. The map originally posted on RT is all in Russian. I couldn't make any sense of it, though I suspect that the big city in the upper right quadrant is Moscow. But I fed the link to Google and Google offered to translate it for me, so I said go ahead, and that's the image we have above. Ukraine does not appear in this map. Note the label on the big city in this translated version.

Air Loom

Screenshot Air Loom Fort Myers

Air Loom is a 3D Air Traffic Display Program currently under development by Objective Unclear.

Via Detroit Steve.

Baotou, China | The Worst and Most Important City You Never Heard Of

Baotou, China | The Worst and Most Important City You Never Heard Of
imperatur

Rivers in China
Pearl River is the one at the bottom

Good maps of rivers are rare. This is a nice one.

Left to right: Black Lake, Steel Mill, Frozen Kurdulun River, Baotou, China

Just checking to see whether the black lake actually shows up in Google Maps.

Building I-70 Through Colorado

How to Build a Road
Wendover Productions

Fifty odd years ago, Matt and I drove from Columbus, Ohio to Los Angeles in a two-stroke Saab, which means we covered most of I-70.

I-70

Mobility OBellX
Idaho Transportation Department

I've heard about ski resorts using cannons and dynamite to set off avalanches, but I've never heard of the OBellX before.

Colonial Pipeline

Colonial Pipeline

This is what keeps the East Coast humming. 

The pipeline – consisting of three tubes – is 5,500 miles long and can carry 3 million barrels of fuel per day between Texas and New York. - Wikipedia

Fuel started flowing in 1964. I'm posting this just because I like the map.

Previous posts about the Colonial Pipeline.

Kathmandu

Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal

This was a difficult puzzle. Having 300 pieces and having so much detail meant there were few visual cues as to which pieces connected. I ended up having to search for a spot for about half of them.

Boudha Stupa gave birth to the origins of Tibetan Buddhism. Its massive mandala makes it the largest spherical stupa in Nepal and one of the largest in the world. - from Wikipedia

Katmandu
Bob Seger

I was thinking that there were some other famous songs that mentioned Kathmandu. The only other famous one I found was the tune by Cat Stevens. LYRICS found 209 other tunes. I listened to several, but nothing rang a bell. 

There was one tune that mentions 'Kingsley in Kathmandu' and that leads me to the Kingsley Holgate Foundation Facebook page that mentions the 'Japanese-built 'BP Highway' or Sindhuli road'.

The BP Highway is a highway in eastern Nepal that links Kathmandu Valley with the Eastern Terai region. It is named after the former leader of Nepal, BP Koirala. The construction of this road started in November 1996 and completed in 2015. It was built with a grant from the Government of Japan. - from Wikipedia

BP Highway Nepal

Himalayan Mountains from Space

Best view I've seen. Meanwhile, there are big time protests going on in Nepal.

Iceberg

Map showing the trajectory of iceberg A23a, the largest iceberg in world, from 1986 to its breaking up at the end of August 2025 north of South Georgia island.
Click to embiggenate

Back in December 2024, which is 38 years after it broke off of Antarctica, it covered 1,400 square miles. Now it's only half that size and they aren't expecting it to last much longer.

Has anyone been there? Google knows:

When the iceberg calved from Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, it broke off with a Soviet research station, Druzhnaya 1, still on it. 

PHYS ORG has the story.

Via daily timewaster

Skyfall

Russian 9M730 Burevestnik Cruise Missile Launch

Life imitates James Bond:

Significant activity on Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago indicates an impending test of the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, known as Skyfall by NATO. - OilPrice

Skyfall was the title of a 2012 James Bond movie. But where is this Novaya Zemlya archipelago? In the arctic ocean, that's where:

Novaya Zemlya Archipelago

Google Maps doesn't show lines of latitude or longitude. I adjusted the view so that the line of longitude that runs through our target is vertical, i.e. the North Pole is directly above Novaya Zemlya at some unknown distance. Looking around, I found a couple other maps of the arctic that do have some better information.

Map of the Arctic showing the July Isotherm line (orange), the Arctic tree line (green) and the Arctic circle (red). Novaya Zemlya is at the top of the Arctic Ocean in this map.

The Isotherm line indicates that the temperature is roughly the same all along the line at that time, in this case July.

Map originally published by Tufts University showing territorial division in the Arctic. Novaya Zemlya is in the lower right quadrant of the Arctic Ocean in this map.

The Russian Ministry of Defense’s newest military base: the Arctic Shamrock, on the large island of Alexandra Land.

Russia isn't messing around when they set up operations in the Arctic. I didn't see any like this on Novaya Zemlya, but there is an airbase on the southern end. There is also small town with a hospital and a church about 75 miles southeast of there. Alexandra Land is roughly 400 miles northwest of Novaya Zemlya.

Russian Compound

Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Russian Compound

Russia has a church in Jerusalem. Who knew? Tyler informs us Putin wants the whole compound back. I guess they used to own it.

Allenby's march in Russian Compound 1917 - The Library of Congress

Russia Beyond has more old photos of the place.

Wikipedia's page about the Russian Compound:

The Russian Compound is one of the oldest districts in central Jerusalem, featuring 

• a large Russian Orthodox church, 
• the Russian-owned Sergei's Courtyard and 
• the premises of the Russian Consulate General in Jerusalem, as well as 
• the site of former pilgrim hostels, some of which are used as 
• Israeli government buildings (such as the Moscovia Detention Centre), and 
• one of which hosts the Museum of Underground Prisoners. 

The compound was built between 1860 and 1890, with the addition in 1903 of the Nikolai Pilgrims Hospice. It was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City of Jerusalem. The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's main campus is adjacent to the compound.

The Russian Compound covers 17 acres between Jaffa Road, Shivtei Israel Street, and the Street of the Prophets. After 1890 it was closed by a gated wall, thus the name "compound", but it has long since been a freely accessible central-town district. In October 2008, the Israeli government agreed to transfer ownership of Sergei's Courtyard, one of the main buildings inside the complex, to the Russian government.

Russian Compound

Google's satellite image of Jerusalem is blurry and the image doesn't quite square with the roads. Not surpising since it is basically a war zone. Wikimapia at least shows us the layout of the whole compound.