Scenes from My Neighborhood

If you live in the Albany area (or anywhere up and down the East Coast, really), take five minutes and watch this scary freaking video from the NYTimes.

I know it's annoying having to click through, but the Times is pretty sensitive about holding tightly onto its proprietary shit.  Which is fine, I suppose.

Question:  At one point the narrator says that the flash-point of Bakken crude is 74 degrees (which, just for minimal peace of mind, I'll assume is Celsius).  I find this hard to believe, by the way.  And the term "flash-point" may be a technical one that doesn't mean what people such as you and I, dear reader, think it does.  But regardless of all that, if the damn stuff is so heat sensitive, why the hell do they transport it in cars that have been painted flat black?

How hot do you think those things get on a sunny August afternoon?

On a happier note, here's something by O. Winston Link ...

Also painted black.  Although the only thing that happens when one of these blows up is scalding water goes everywhere.  Which, if you're standing nearby, is a drag.