o Trailers were reported to have been empty.

o National Semi-Trailer lists their 53′x102″x13’6″ dry van tare weight at 14,500 lbs. The GVWR is 68,000 lbs (which would be much more impressive if airborne!).

o Tare on a 40′ ISO box appears to be around 8000 lbs (59k lbs loaded). I expect a 53′ domestic box would be between this weight and that of the trailer above, but probably closer to the low end.

o Curb weight of a Chevy Tahoe is about 5600 lbs for comparison.

So an empty 53′ dry van is only worth about 1.75 Tahoes with no correction for the much larger surface area of a dry van (because I don’t have the foggiest how to do that!)

My issue was he has made me the subject, in at least two cases, of his presentations, mostly because he doesn’t like my auxiliary lighting. The problem is, in the two examples I’ve seen him use me in, he took both completely out of context to prove a point he was making, when what he’s saying was going on there was not what actually was going on there.

To add insult to injury, I caught him at a presentation at the convention using some of my video in his presentation without my permission, which I am sure is something that pretty much everyone in the community frowns on.

He may have some valid safety points to make, but IMO he needs to go about it a little more carefully and make sure what he’s saying is happening in his examples is what is actually happening, and not what he assumes is happening.

I’ve heard the idea of mobile-phone-based warning dissemination from multiple people. Although I don’t know the particulars, my understanding is that there are substantial privacy laws and/or concerns that are preventing such an initiative. There are commercial apps that chirp when your phone is in a watch or warning, but their performance is inconstant, at least in my experience. Perhaps you can lead the way in prototyping a new system!

This might be pie in the sky, but is anyone looking at new technologies to “hook viewers in.”

I envision a smart phone app that periodically presents the phone location to a server. If the phone turns out to be in the path of a tornado, or any of various hazards, then the server could reply such that the phone could present the user with a audio and text information. The technology would be difficult to develop and deploy, but I think it is feasible. It would have a better reach, since many people are more attached to their phones than their weather radios, or even TV’s.

Geo-positioning technology is up and coming, for better or worse. This could be an opportunity for something better.

The most challenging part for me was coming up with a topic that was original, worth doing, and do-able using what I had learned. Nothing I learned in any class was very helpful in choosing a research topic. I believe this is a gap in the education process for potential doctoral students.

See: http://www.flame.org/~cdoswell/publications/Student_Book_II.pdf

FWIW … half a barbell is a dumbell!