Bad Spring For Vermont Covered Bridges And Stupid Truck Drivers

The extensively damaged covered bridge in Lyndon, Vermont.
An oversized truck barreled through the bridge in May. 

This spring was not good for Vermont's famed covered bridges. Two idiotic truckers made sure that was the case.

Back on May 16, a moronic truck driver blasted through the Millers Run bridge, built in 1878 in Lyndonville, breaking angled roof supports, damaging two main vertical beams and shattering parts of the bridge's north side.  

Police said the driver told them she was making a delivery and GPS directions said to go across the covered bridge.

As if GPS were God and she couldn't tell the truck was bigger than the bridge.

As a side note, I guess that's why truckers continually get stuck on the narrow winding Smugglers Notch pass on Route 108 in Vermont. Numerous signs tell trucks not to go up, but GPS says go, so they go. Human-created warnings be damned.

Engineering studies are going on now to figure out how to fix the bridge. The trucking company whose driver is responsible for the damage looks like they will pay for the damage.

As you can see by the video at the bottom of this post, the truck driver cruised on through, wrecking the bridge and then kept right on going, as if that was the normal thing to do.  The truck driver, Jolene Godfrey, 43, of White River Junction, was on a delivery run for Upper Valley Produce.

Just a day or two after the bridge in Lyndon was trashed another truck driver trashed another Vermont covered bridge, this one in West Woodstock. 

The truck, with a trailer carrying equipment exceed the bridge's height limit and damaged the interior of it. At least this time, the truck driver owned up to it, stopped immediately and cooperated with police.

All this is nothing new.

Last summer, another trucker damaged the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge over the Connecticut River on the Vermont-New Hampshire border.

Once again, it was GPS. Nizeyimana Silas, 31 at the time of Nashua, New Hampshire, drove through the bridge, which has a posted nine foot, two inch clearance, according to the Valley News. The truck is three feet taller than that.

Cornish Police Chief Doug Hackett had to tell the Valley News the obvious: "Following your GPS doesn't mean you don't have to follow posted signs. You can't use the GPS as an excuse.... At some point, you have to look at the road, look at the signs, look at what's going on around you."

Please, folks. Stop relying on your GPS. It lies to you.

Here's the video of the Lyndon bridge being damaged by the oblivious trucker:

Carnival Vista Cruise Ship Creates Mini-Tsunami, No Carnival For Sicilian Boat Owners

Sunken, damaged boats in Sicily after a Carnival Cruise
ship got to close to a jetty

Somebody's in trouble over at Carnival Cruise Lines.

In  late August, the humongous Carnival Vista cruise ship departed port in Messina, Sicily. Whoever was piloting the thing came to close to a jetty and a marina where numerous small boats were docked.

As you can see in the dramatic surveillance video at the bottom of this post, the results were not pretty.

According to Cruise Law News, several passengerfs aboard the Carnival Vista thought their ship hit the piers, but that was not the case. It just came much, much too close.

Several small boats sank, others were crushed. The pier was destroyed. Luckily, there are no reports of injuries.

Italian authorities said they're investigating. The incident caused about 250,000 Euros in damage, which is the equivalent of about $280,000, says Cruise Law News.

No word yet from Carnival on what caused this, or what they might do to make amends.

Did someone say lawsuit?

Here's the video:

 

Artist Destroys Another Artist's $1 Million Vase Because Local Museum Doesn't Show Local Art

In what has to be the stupidest, most misguided protest I've seen in a long time, a Miami artist strolled into a museum, picked up a valuable vase by a Chinese artist that was on display there, and smashed it to pieces on the floor.

A Miami artist destoyed one of these vases
by a Chinese artist because he wanted more
local art shown in Miami musuems.  

The destroyed work might have been worth as much as $1 million.

According to the Miami New Times, Artist Maximo Caminero said he smashed the vase as a protest because local museums seemed to never display works by local artists.  

Like himself, apparently.

"I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here....They have spent so many millions now on international artists. It's the same political situation over and over again. I've been here for 30 years and it's always the same," Caminero told the New Times.

Well, what a huff!  The local museum doesn't show local artists so I'll just destroy works of art by people from overseas. A little self-centered, are we?

Maybe if Caminero destroys enough works from overseas artists they'll have no choice but to show his own stuff, right?

Or not.

The work he destroyed was by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Caminero said he had no idea it was worth that much. Judging from the photos of the vases, I would have had no idea they were worth that much, either.

Geez, they're nice, but..

Anyway, here's what Caminero had to say:

"But honestly, I had no idea the vase had any value. I admire Ai Weiwei greatly and have always supported his actions while he was suffering indignities from the Chinese government," Camiero said.

Caminero faces a charge of felony criminal mischief for his act of protest, or vandalism or whatever you want to call it.

While most people, including Ai Weiwei, think Carminero was a dufus for destroying the work, some are on his side.

According to the Miami New Times:

"I think it's the most courageous act ever undertaen by a Miami artist," says Sergio Garcia, a 54-year-old Cuban-born artist. "I commend Maximo Caminero totally for his actions and think he has helped squarely focus attention from the international community on the plight of local artists."

Who knew artists were so strident?  I don't pretend to know whether local artists in Miami get the short shrift as far as museum showings go, but are we going to have some sort of artists riot?

Will international artists and those from the local area start smashing each others' work in a war of attrition? Which ever side has the most artwork left after the riots gets to display them in what's left of the museums?

On the bright side, maybe we can turn the dispute among artists into some sort of performance art. Museums can sell tickets, and the proceeds can go toward buying more art.

Which would probably be promptly destroyed by more protesting artists

Barrier Gate Really Hates a Certain Car

Have you ever had one of those days where you disliked something so much you wanted to repeatedly bash it into oblivion?

Who knew parking lot barriers have those days, too? You know those barriers. When you leave a parking lot and have to pay, it lifts out of your way when you've handed over the case.

A particular barrier seemed to notice a car parked near it that it Just. Absolutely. Hated.

Watch what the barrier did. No word on what the car did to annoy the barrier.