For those who live in Earthquake ridden California they know that Earthquakes are completely disruptive to our civilization. On a personal level they can be a pure hell, with water mains broken, buildings crumbled and no power for weeks. As if that is not enough there can be aftershocks for months after a large quake, often only one point or so less than the original. It really shakes your psyche during that time of constant tremblers and aftershocks, they start and get bigger or start and then stop and you never know if this will be the big after shock which finishes your house off or shakes the over pass onto your car. In fact often when you are in your car you cannot feel them right away. So when in traffic no one allows themselves to be stopped under an over pass. It is kind of funny watching all these people take such precautions, yet wouldnt you do the same? I propose we put warning lights on the bottoms of over passes which will blink a bright light when a trembler starts so you are not caught under an over pass and crushed to death in your car like a giant crusher at the junk yard car recycling yard. No one wants to be smushed or even watch someone else get it ahead of you. We have a 287 Billion Dollar Highway Bill, but they are already considering making an amendment to that. You see Hurricane Katrina and Rita may end up re-directing monies to fix roads and infrastructure there rather than the projects that were allotted. I propose that we use some of these dollars to put Earthquake warning lights on our freeway and highway infrastructures. Now realize there will be no power on, if it is after a large quake. I propose we use the shaking from the Earth tremblers to warn motorists and power up the flashing warning lights using electromagnetic induction technology to charge a capacitor instead of the headlights working off the power grid or a back up battery. Currently there are some nifty micro-flashlights being used which you can buy which use a similar technique and are available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight technology research lab. These smaller flashlights work by shaking them for about thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes and they shine quite bright since they use a very bright LED light. Here is a link to this home use flashlight: http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/ee_shakelight.html Perhaps this is a good way to save lives of motorists from being crushed to death in their cars. If it is feasible it might be a very good way to protect our people. Think on this. |
