Don't know what it costs if your caught talking on the phone without the hands-free action bumpin' in Cali.. But that, IMHO should be REALLY expensive. Don't know how many times I've found an idiot who I wondered if drunk.. When I passed them as I'd MUCH rather they crash behind me & looked over.. "One day... At band camp..." Nope, not drunk. Phone time. Sigh.
I hope soon that becomes illegal here in Oregon as folks here have enough problems driving. I don't know if its the lack of skills or if the infrastructure hasn't grown with the population, but often I've looked at the traffic load & the speed we were traveling & said to myself "If we were in Socal.. We'd be doing about 85 right now".. How fast were we moving? Ya often less than 40.

Now.. I don't want to speed- I just want to be able to do 5 to 10 over the limit. Why? Well, the whole point of being in the car is to be somewhere else. And the van I have isn't *That* awesome that I absolutely love being in it. So let's f'in Go, Please.

Where the hell do you get 100 tons of sulfur in 3 railroad cars? And not know what to do with it? What... Do you wake up in the morning & stumble from the farmhouse... SURPRISE! There's a couple railroad cars that overnight twister dropped in your yard?
Or were you trying to order 3 Kilos, entered "3K" in the "pounds" field, and were too drunk / stoned to be surprised by the shipping charge, if not the price?

One might think you would know if you had upwards of THREE RAILROAD CARS full of sulfur coming.. Since you prolly had a plan to use it for something. Whatever the hell that something was... Must have used a shitload of it to have 100 tons left over.

Ok, ok.. I'm not going to wonder for long, but it does make me wonder. 

100 Million worth of crude oil. Hell would you give it a try? I might.. Especially when the ship captains tell us their best defenses ammount to a high pressure water hose. What about the Military? "Well, the ocean is so big..." they say. Understandable.

So what is the solution? Well.. Granted I get seasick watching boats on tv so call it the 'armchair solution', but seems to me there are several.
In WW2 we had shipping lanes & Military escort. Can't imagine there are too many ports a supertanker can pull into thus there are probably few routes between them. The pirates know this.. So send a couple gunships along with the tanker. Don't have a Navy? Get ahold of Blackwater. Betcha they've got boats. I know for sure they have "little-bird" helecopters.. Set one of those on the deck of your tanker. Wait for the pirates. When they show up, launch that helo & lite 'em up.

What about arming your tanker? There's a little thing called a GAU-2/A (US Air Force Designation) minigun. Six barrels, 30 caliber, 500 or 6,000 rounds a minute, selectable. Three guys can carry it & set it up. It can be mounted on anything from a SUV to a lil helecopter to even the AC 130 Gunship. Want to see it? Here ya go.
Ya if I was a pirate in a lil Swift-boat & saw that coming at me.. I would be somewhere else almost immediately.

Ok, ok.. Maybe having something that puts out that much fire sitting on the deck of your (just) slightly flammable supertanker could be a Bad Idea. The point is to protect your boatload of flammables not torch it right? But still. Protecting 100 Million Dollars of anything with a high pressure water hose? When the Bad Guys can come at you with *Anything* and the cops are nowhere to be found?

If I was the owner of that ship.. I sure as Hell would be doing something to protect my investment.

I still haven't managed to find the tactics used by the pirates. What.. Do you drive up next to the tanker & call over the radio "Throw down a ladder or we'll Huff & Puff & Blow your Boat In!" Do you put a sticky-bomb on the end of a stick & threateningly wave it at the tanker? I don't know. Maybe you chuck a rope in the water & foul their propeller, then wait for them to starve.

I do know tankers are kinda tall. Pretty much you cannot get onto one in the open ocean unless the guys already on it throw you a rope. Now you could try to Nancy Regan them & Just Say No.. But wouldn't it be better to have a sniper team on board? Or stick a Phalanx Close-In Weapon System on there. It's automated. Turn it on & go to bed... It tracks & kills anything within X kilometers of your ship.

Seems fairly cut & dried to me. Add defenses to your oil tanker.. The pirates will attack someone else. What would it cost? Well.. What's the ransom on a 100 Million dollar tanker & the crew? Spend that money on arming your ship & you only have to pay it once. Plus you get something for your it besides your ship back. Even if it costs you $100,000 a shipment to hire a crew from Blackwater.. Write it off as insurance. 

See how there's a few too many?  The U style ones belong to the cops.
I asked... The fine is $300. If you don't pay it, they sell seized bikes at the end of the year down at the OSU Used Sale. Cheap. Its on Wednesdays, 12 till 3.

First week there was a punkass with a black bike who locked it to the ramp railing. I mentioned to him that the cops were seizing bikes parked there.. He smirked, unlocked his bike and took off. Next day it was there again.. So I superglued the lock. (I know, I know... I'm a sinner. But hey- I didn't make the lil bastard lock his bike there...) Then, adding insult to injury as there were like 8 bikes locked to the goddamn railing..  I went up to the Admin office & asked them for the guy with the bolt-cutters. "Huh?" The bikes on the ramp railing are making it a bit difficult to get into the building... "Oh?! Oh we'll take care of that..." says the lady as she picked up the phone.. After class on the way out- The campus cops were out there with the bolt cutters.
"This happens again give us a call..." as I went by. I played dumb... Oh hey! Thanks!

So ride your bike. I don't care. Lock it to a tree... Street sign... Bike rack... Granted locking it to a parking meter is kinda dumb as hell I can lift the bike complete with lock still locked up & over the top.. And I'm in a wheelchair, but anyway.. (I actually did that & took it into the tat shop where the owner was.. Asked my tat girl if she could bring it to my house in her car... It was kinda funny when the owner noticed..)
Pretty much lock your bike anywhere, I don't give a damn. Give me the finger as you lock it to the f'ing railing on MY ramp tho... 

I've been doing it about every 3rd night since I got it... Nerve pain in my legs is WAY up, but what do you expect when you've tied a limb to an electric fence for an hour? 'Course its gonna hurt a little.
My massage girl (who is *Quite* hot, but taken) says she can tell there's greater muscle mass in my legs. I expected such, just not so soon.
So while the pain can be kindof a Bitch to deal with.. More muscle mass? Worth it. Why? I mean besides the obvious.. Well one thing is more muscle on my backside (yes, my ass) means less chance of pressure sores. Not really that scary to me, but they do hurt like hell & I'd rather not deal with healing one again. But the Big Thing to me is I suspect *Someday* the Docs are going to tell me they've figured out something to fix my back. Don't want 'em tellin' me that & then looking at my legs & saying "But there's so little muscle mass left that.. It wouldn't really be that effective." Or something to that effect.
Ya that would Suck.
Or they might tell me they can fix my back but I'd have to go through months & months of rehab (again) to get my legs built up to a point where they'd support me.. Don't really want to go through that either.

So all thats cool right? Well, one more thing is happening that to me is the coolest of all. Ever since the injury I've had absolutely no idea where my legs are. Not a clue. Wake up in a weird position & wonder why... I'd have to look to be able to tell that my legs are hanging off the bed. Or in some pretzel. Well now... I'd say about.. 80% of the time, where I think my legs are & where they actually are are the same thing.
Yes, thats right... I can tell granted most of the time, where my legs are. Sometimes I think I can feel things that happen to them, but... I'm not sure. Like its not definite. So... I don't know maybe that is sloooowly happening as well. Fingers crossed.
So that knowing where they are most of the time thing may seem really small to you- But think about it for a minute. You always know where your bits are when you can't see them right? What if you didn't know? Ya that might suck a little huh. Imagine all the injuries you might cause to yourself. yes... I bleed alot & usually I haven't a clue how it happened. So maybe in the future that will calm down a little. Who knows.

What do you do with all the sand.. And all the bags.. When the storm is over?

The sand I'd imagine just "goes away". But the bags... Those look like the plastic bags grain (for horses) comes in. As I remember from being a kid & having those things 'round the barn... The used bags are damn near indestructible. Water does nothing to them- They can lay half buried in the muck all winter & be just fine 6 months later.. Really the only thing that messes with them is laying in the sun for an extended period of time- Like years. Even then the weave starts to separate a little.. They're made from about 1/8" strips of.. Plastic (nylon?) all woven together.

So what happens to all the bags? Doubtful every one put down before the flood is collected after- Surely some wash away to... Wherever. Wonder how many end up in the oceans Great Garbage Patch?
How many of 'em clog up.. Whatever? Drainage systems.. Creeks, rivers.. How many critters are entangled & die?

So why not use something biodegradable? Burlap kinda sucks for holding sand- The weave is way too open. But there are *Many* plastics out there that biodegrade including at least one built specifically for disposal in sea-water.

Sure they are prolly more expensive than the 'old standard' grain bag. At least at first. Anything is spendy at first when just a few are made. (Look at the i-phone. First ones were what? $400 *IF* you could find one?) But how many snadbags were used in Gustav Protection in the last week alone? Hundreds of thousands? What will the 'collect all the sandbags' effort cost? Millions? Maybe....

So degradable plastic is a little more expensive on the front end. Seems like the savings after use should more than make up for the higher initial price.

Think of the marketing possibilities for Mister Bio-Bag supplier! With everyone holding hands & zenning over the bio-movement.. "My bags do not pollute the environment. They degrade in 6 months to their base materials- No clean-up costs! Simply scoop up the bags & sand & pile it somewhere. The bags will degrade by the time the sand is needed again. Or just leave them in place- My bags will act as fertilizer for plants which will hold the sand in place."

Could even incorporate grass seed or somesuch *into* the bio-plastic.. Place the bags, hold the flood, 3 weeks later the grass sprouts. No ugly sand-bag pile anymore.. Just a small hill covered with grass.

M'kay. I'll be forming a pilot group next week to explore the possibility- In a few months I'll be looking for investors.
Ya I wish I knew how to do that.. But by the time I get out of school.. I just might.

As I'm getting in Delivery Guy is right there outside my window- I'd had a thought a few weeks previously so I rolled down the window to ask him: Hey- As the price keeps goin' up, how long do you think till they arm you guys? He grinned... "Thats the thing- Its against the law else I'd be carrying already." No Shit? "Well I've got 10,000 gallons of something *Everyone* wants.. At that price (points at the sign) its worth 41 thousand dollars." Wow... And many crimes have been comitted for *Way* less than that...

So I wonder how long till theres going to be a rash of gasoline truck hijackings. That... Actually make the news as I'm absolutely certain there have been some already. Hell if I've thought of it- Someone else who actually is capable of pulling it off has as well. Not very threatening in a wheelchair, hard to climb up into the cab if a semi.. And double-clutching with non-existant hand contrils? Ya that can be a bit tricky.

It wouldn't take much though- 2 guys in a car. Find a delivery truck you can stop somehow.. P'hapse as its on the way to some rural town. Pull the driver out at gun / knife / boxcutter / knitting-needle point (All things "dangerous" according to the TSA) and... I don't know, tie him to a tree out of sight of the road.
One guy drives the truck while the other drives the car away from the 'scene of the crime'.

So now the theives have 10,000 gallons of gas. What to do with it? Grab a couple kids & set up a corner gasoline stand Sunday morning? Naaah- All they would need would be some slightly shady & rather greedy Quik-E-Mart owner / manager. Drive up, drop the stolen gasoline into the tank & leave the tanker somewhere. Preferably near some other town just to throw off the cops. Sell it as normal.. Maybe even drop the price a couple cents to enchorage quick sales so they don't screw up their normal delivery & tip anyone off.
Hmmm... A tanker was stolen last week & now you don't require your usual delivery. What happened?
~Oh Yeah... Now call the cops & tell them of Delivery Driver tied to the tree.. From a disposable cell phone. Who hopefully the lions tigers & bears haven't found & eaten. Don't want to go to the Big House for manslaughter, you know?

I don't know how the hell it hasn't happened already- And made the national news. I can see in the future however- Armored gasoline delivery trucks.. Guys with shot-guns riding shotgun.. When theres a $40K delivery to a bank its a bit protected from all the theives isn't it?

'Course... There will prolly be some hill-billy who snatches a tanker with a couple friends & parks the damn thing somewhere in the woods.. Then puts the word out that gas 3 miles up National Forest Road 23-8 is $2.50 a gallon. Shortly the tree-cops will begin to wonder why there's a line of cars going out into the woods.. Ya, Idiots.