As you navigate the highways and byways of your daily commute, you may have encountered an intriguing sight: black cables stretched across the road, almost like stealthy sentinels of the pavement. But what exactly are these enigmatic tubes, and what role do they play in our transportation infrastructure? The answer lies in the realm of traffic management and data collection.1

These unassuming black cables are, in fact, portable traffic counters strategically placed by transportation authorities for research purposes. Primarily used by local agencies, these tubes hold vital insights into road usage and traffic patterns. With more than 12,000 of these traffic counters scattered across the state, they provide invaluable data that fuels the planning and development of our road networks.

The technology driving these unobtrusive rubber cords is elegantly simple yet remarkably effective.2 Each time a vehicle’s tires contact the tube, a burst of air is triggered, setting off an electrical signal recorded by a counter device. This ingenious pneumatic mechanism can track the volume of vehicles passing over a road within a given timeframe. Transportation agencies can gain insights into peak traffic congestion periods by analyzing the intervals between these air bursts. When deployed in pairs, these tubes provide even richer data, enabling the determination of vehicle class, speed, and direction.

Such information is far from trivial—it forms the bedrock for informed decisions on road signage, speed limits, and allocation of transportation budgets. Based on these insights, municipalities can fine-tune their traffic management strategies, ensuring that road systems remain efficient and safe for all road users.

While the primary function of these pneumatic road tubes is traffic counting, their utility extends far beyond mere enumeration.3 These inconspicuous instruments serve as multi-dimensional data collectors, playing a pivotal role in enhancing our road infrastructure and ensuring smooth traffic flow.

The U.S. Department of Transportation sheds light on the operational intricacies of these tubes. When a vehicle’s tires traverse the rubber tube, a burst of air pressure is generated, closing an air switch that sends an electrical signal to a counter device. These tubes can be set up either as temporary or permanent installations, each serving distinct purposes. Temporary configurations, often lasting only a day, offer quick glimpses into traffic dynamics, while permanent setups provide continuous, in-depth monitoring.

Transportation agencies strategically position these black cables in areas with minimal interference, targeting straight stretches of road for optimal data collection. Through single-tube setups, agencies can gauge vehicle counts and time gaps between vehicles. When utilizing paired tubes, the system delves into the intricacies of traffic, capturing axle count, direction, and speed.

These unassuming tubes also step in when urban road management faces challenges. If residents raise concerns about speeding or shortcutting, these tubes are deployed to investigate and validate claims. The data they generate contributes to the formulation of transportation budgets and the implementation of effective solutions.

In conclusion, the next time you encounter those mysterious black cables stretching across the road, you can appreciate the intricate web of data they weave behind the scenes. These unassuming instruments serve as silent observers, capturing the heartbeat of our roads and guiding the decisions that shape our transportation landscape. As you pass over these tubes, remember that they are more than meets the eye— they are the pulse of our evolving road networks.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

  The Government shutdown that is looming should not be an issue that we need to deal with. The people elected to the office of representatives are supposed to be adults with knowledge of our nation, understanding of our culture, and skills to bring programs and parties together to keep the economy moving forward without problems. What we have is a bunch of children that have a few personal agendas and they want to make everything come to a standstill until they get what they want.

  This has been happening with regularity over the last few years and it is getting very tiresome. We need to change how we make these decisions or change who makes them. In the mean time this type of behavior should come with punishment not reward. Issues that impact national financial matters should not have anything to do with what two consenting adults do with their lives, i.e. same sex marriage or anything like it.

  We were formed as a nation with a separation of church and state and the reason for that is on display everywhere that the church has a major say in how the state operates no matter the religion. The religion or religious leader believes they have the last word and that all are to listen regardless of membership in the church. 

  Kennedy was a hard sell for President because he was Catholic and “You can not serve two masters and the Pope will be running the country”.   It did not turn out that way but today we have representatives in congress that want to stuff their brand of bull down everyone’s throat whether you like or not. The push to make this a Christian country and all the rest of it is not a plus. 

  If we are so set on being of one faith why have we allowed foreign nations to come here and take over some of the biggest, richest industries we have? Oh, right that is under the table and out of sight because it is being done by the very wealthy in our country.

  Let’s be honest with ourselves, the corruption that goes on is allowed because to many in high places are making a profit and they don’t care if religion is part of the program or not, because they do not intent to let it affect them. Bottom line for the folks with the books stuck in your hands, the majority of us have far more faith in our democracy than we do in your hypocrisy or religion as you like to call it so stop trying to sink the rest of us in the ship  of your despair.

  As for the legislators we need to get rid of the current batch of idiots and see if there is better fruit in the tree.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

Elections are coming and we are supposed to declare our party choice for reasons that escape me. The party has rights, is hardly the answer as far as I’m concerned. I have rights and my right is to tell you it is none of your business as to who I vote for and you damned well know it.
Election year, leap year one extra day to listen to bull shit and hope that your vote counts for something. With the way gerrymandering has been used to give one party the upper hand it does not seem that winning the popular vote means much when the rich don’t want it to. Is our system perfect, not by a long shot, but it is better than not having a voice at all.
We need to find a way to take back the right of the people to have a 4th component to our government that has the power to get rid of bad apples. That component is the people and if you believe that no member of government will care about that then keep in mind that the component we are talking about very often contains the mothers of the people sitting in power and none of them want to offend their mothers.
It is time to take the reins of power back and put them in the hands of people that have the best intentions for the nation at heart. We need not listen to the self indulgent overly nosey people that populate the office that are supposed to serve the people.
Take, for example, filling out a survey and they ask about your race. Human is not enough they need more and if you are of Hispanic background they can get down to which side of the mountain on the south coast of wherever you came from. They don’t ask for such details if you are European, German, or French or Swiss or any of those, or African or American, do you come from New York or Arizona, no that is of no interest but from Spain, Nosey to the max, why? Have you been asked for your blood type, sperm count, positon preferences or anything like that no.
Too much unnecessary information being asked for and far to much being given, time to stop. We need to get back to relevant and leave it at that

The “Guinness Book of Records” was created to settle arguments in pubs. 

ARTS & CULTURE 

in 1954, Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, began research on a new book of records meant to help settle pub arguments. The idea stemmed from a bird hunting expedition Beaver took in 1951, during which he and other guests debated about the fastest game bird. Unable to find an answer in any extant reference work, Beaver eventually decided to create his own record book to answer such questions. He hired researchers Norris and Ross McWhirter to work at his new company, Guinness Superlatives, which began operations on November 30, 1954. The McWhirter brothers (the twin sons of a newspaper editor) worked tirelessly to research various facts before finally putting pen to paper, and after more than three months of 90-hour workweeks, the record book was ready for publication.

The first issue of the Guinness Book of Records (now named Guinness World Records) was published on August 27, 1955. Initially, the book was intended as promotional material for the Guinness Brewery, so 1,000 copies — which were laminated to protect against potential beer spillage — were distributed to local British pubs. However, the book proved to be so popular that Beaver changed his tack and began selling it to the public. An additional 50,000 copies were printed, and by Christmas of 1955, the Guinness Book of Records achieved bestseller status in the United Kingdom. The company released the first U.S. edition in September the following year, and by 1964, the book had sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

We are sitting on the edge of the cliff waiting for the lemmings to jump because someone does not like other people’s life choices. Here we go again, an entire nation being held hostage for the temper tantrum of a few upset, self indulgent, right wing, overly righteous, know better than the rest of us ____, pick your favorite derogatory term.
Do away with anything that is gender related in the educational system, get rid of planned parenthood, stop this and stop that and use your muscle to make sure that whatever offends you is forever gone. Isn’t nice that you have the power to make all the rest of mankind dance to the tune you wish to play. How about we change the direction of the flow of power and make you on the down hill run?
If we look hard enough then chances are we can find a way for the majority of us to continue to live and you little spineless hermaphroditic insects go away. So let us look at this for what it is and that is the fulfillment of a HATE CRIME. We have laws against such things so maybe we should look into this from a different angle.
It may be an issue across the nation but we cannot classify it as a national issue. Everywhere you go times are changing and some things take some getting use to. Turning back the clock is not an option, although the people behind this fight would be happy to do just that. If they win this time getting all they ask for, what will be on the agenda next time?
How about women’s right to vote, or own property, maybe interracial marriage, where you can live based on color or some other factor. These issues are important and to some very important. The issues are far more important than the people opposed to them, and yet they do not impact everyone in the nation like the decisions of the little people that managed to get elected by lazy uninformed voters from wherever these idiots blew in from.
Identify the issues they are targeting for what they are and the people that are making all the noise for who they are, throw both in the trash and get back to running the country while we still have a country to run.

Roughly 5,000 years ago, humans started to speak to one another. Ancient civilizations in regions around the world began to develop complex language systems starting at least as early as 3200 BCE. While it’s difficult to pin down the exact origin of language given the limited archaeological evidence available, historians generally agree on a few early tongues that pioneered the use of both written and verbal communication. Today, there are more than 7,100 different languages in use around the world, and they are easier than ever to learn to speak thanks to language-learning platforms such as Babbel. Here are seven of the oldest languages in the world.

Sumerian

From roughly 4100 BCE to 1750 BCE, the ancient Sumerian civilization thrived across southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). The Sumerians developed the world’s oldest known writing system, cuneiform, which consisted of wedge-shaped characters carved into clay tablets. The script was later used to denote the spoken Sumerian language, in lieu of any sort of alphabet. The language started as an entirely logographic script, and evolved into a phonetic syllabic system to convey more conversational thought. The oldest known example of Sumerian writing first appeared in a group of administrative and educational texts dating to around 3200 BCE. Around 2500 BCE, the Sumerians produced the first known literature from any ancient civilization: religious works such as the Kesh Temple Hymn that focused less on real-world issues and more on mythological concepts. 

The now-extinct Sumerian language consisted of four vowel sounds (a, i, e, u) as well as 16 consonant sounds (b, d, g, ŋ, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, ś, š, t, z), and was one of the first known uses of grammatical concepts such as prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. By the year 2000 BCE, the language had faded to the point where it was no longer spoken, as new civilizations and languages emerged throughout the region. It enjoyed a brief resurgence for literary and liturgical purposes between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE, but was mainly studied by scribes thereafter.