The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Theo de Raadt has announced the release of OpenBSD 7.8, the latest of the regular biannual updates of the project's free, multi-platform 4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. This version adds support for Raspberry Pi 5, among many other changes: "We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD....
In brief: In today’s post we discuss rainfall amounts for this weekend, when we are likely to see our greatest totals in a quite some time. We also provide an update on our Fall Day celebration, and look ahead to a stronger front next week.
Eric, isn’t Fall Day on Saturday?
Yes, it is. Somehow, the “geniuses” who run Space City Weather scheduled Fall Day for Saturday October 25th, a day when the region has its best chance of widespread rain in quite literally months. The reality, of course, is that such events take a lot of planning (which Reliant has really been helping us with), including scheduling Midtown Park, ordering all sorts of things, and inviting a lot of different groups to come make the day special for everyone. So we selected October 25th earlier this summer.
So what are we going to do? For now we are still planning to hold Fall Day from 10 am to Noon CT on Saturday, pending the forecast. There remains a fair bit of uncertainty in the timing of the storms on Saturday (they could be pre-dawn, they could be mid-morning smack during Fall Day, or around noon or later). If the gathering poses any danger to people we are going to cancel it of course, but we want to wait a little while longer to make a final decision. Matt and I know better than anyone how forecasts can shift. Thanks for your interest and patience.
Wednesday
We should have held Fall Day today! It’s pleasant outside this morning, with fairly low humidity and temperatures in the 60s. With modest easterly winds throughout the day, humidity will remain low as high temperatures reach about 80 degrees beneath mostly sunny skies. Humidity levels will start to creep back up overnight, so although inland areas probably will drop into the upper 50s or lower 60s, coastal areas may well be a bit warmer late tonight.
Low temperature forecast for Thursday morning. (Weather Bell)
Thursday
As the onshore flow resumes we may see a few more clouds in the sky, and humidity will go up as well. Highs likely will crest in the mid-80s before a mild night with lows in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees. There is a slight chance of showers near the coast.
Friday and Saturday
We should see some sunshine on Friday morning, but clouds will start to build later in the day. An upper-level low pressure system and an accompanying front at the surface will advance toward the area, and overall dynamics support the development of showers and thunderstorms to go along with it. The timing is our real point of uncertainty. Generally what I expect is scattered showers and thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and night (highs in the 80s on Friday). At some point a line of storms will push through the area along with the surface front, but whether that happens earlier Saturday or later in the day, we just don’t know yet. But at some point we’re going to see moderate to heavy rainfall. Although totals will vary widely, most of the region should pick up 1 to 4 inches. We hope to have better details about all of this for you in tomorrow’s forecast update, when we begin to have improved high resolution data. Anyway, highs on Saturday will likely be in the 70s (at least we got that part of Fall Day correct, hah).
NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through Monday. (Weather Bell)
Sunday
Rain chances won’t go away during the second half of the weekend, but they should be decidedly lower than Saturday. Expect a high near 80 degrees, with overnight lows in the 60s.
Next week
The first half of next week will probably see highs in the low- to mid-80s with muggier air before a stronger front arrives (Wednesday, maybe?) The details of this are still pretty fuzzy, but we can almost assuredly expect to see some much drier and colder air.
Karine Jean-Pierre has spent most of her career as a Democrat, working on four presidential campaigns and serving in the Obama and Biden administrations. But her days as a member of the Democratic Party are over and that’s the focus of her new book, “Independent." Amna Nawaz sat down with Jean-Pierre to discuss the book and why she left the party.
Rally for Internet Archive Day on the steps of SF City Hall, October 21, 2025.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has officially declared October 22, 2025, as Internet Archive Day in the City and County of San Francisco. Sponsored by Supervisor Connie Chan (District 1), the resolution passed unanimously in recognition of the Internet Archive’s extraordinary milestone—preserving 1 trillion web pages. The resolution celebrates the Archive’s enduring mission to provide “universal access to all knowledge” and our deep roots in the city where it was founded nearly three decades ago.
Before the Board meeting, supporters took to the steps of City Hall for a rally celebrating the resolution and achievement. Speakers included:
Supervisor Connie Chan, District 1
Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian, Internet Archive
Michael Lambert, City Librarian for the City and County of San Francisco
Swilk, artist in residence, Internet Archive
From our headquarters in the Richmond District, the Internet Archive has grown into a global library of digital culture, preserving not only the web, but also books, music, video, and software for generations to come. As the city marks Internet Archive Day, San Franciscans join a worldwide community in celebrating the power of preservation and the shared effort to ensure that the web we’ve built remains accessible to everyone.
Celebrate With the Internet Archive
To mark the occasion, the Internet Archive is hosting a street party and livestream celebration tonight at our Richmond District headquarters. Join us in person for live music, food, and festivities—or tune in online from anywhere in the world to be part of this milestone moment. Together, we’ll celebrate 1 trillion webpages archived and look ahead to the next trillion in our shared digital history.
NEW HAVEN, CT—Shedding light on the animal’s compassionate nature and pop-culture savvy, a study published Wednesday in the journal Behavioral Ecology And Sociobiology found that elephants mourn the cancellation of their favorite TV shows. “The research we conducted over the course of many years in Botswana confirmed that elephants experience a period of deep sorrow when Hollywood executives pull the plug on their most beloved dramas, comedies, and competition reality series,” said study co-author and Yale University zoologist Charlotte Pham, adding that the behavior was first observed in 1983 when a group of African bush elephants solemnly formed a circle around a TV to watch the last episode of M*A*S*H. “They perform complex grieving rites, such as showing reverence for The Sex Lives Of College Girls by covering the DVD box set with dirt and branches. Elephants form lasting relationships with TV shows over the seasons, and consistently return to the grassland spot where they first learned of the cancellation of Suits LA to pay their respects. In addition, the creatures use their advanced cognitive abilities to wage complex online campaigns aimed at getting The Equalizer back on the air. It is perhaps the most haunting phenomenon in all of nature.” The study also found that elephants hold a separate mourning ritual years after a show’s cancellation in which they invite their buddies over to watch old episodes and reminisce about their youth.
CHICAGO—Revealing a highly calibrated system that he has fine-tuned over a lifetime of trial and error, local man Ken Stafford told reporters Wednesday that he has a favorite hot dog place for every level of sobriety. “Richie’s is completely disgusting garbage unless you’re absolutely hammered, then it’s, like, the best fucking spot in the world,” said Stafford, who, in what amounts to years of self-administered longitudinal research, ethnographic field work, and controlled taste trials, now has at least 12 “go-to dog spots” depending on precisely how intoxicated he is, ranging from “tipsy” to “good enough to drive” to “completely fucking shit-faced.” “Mustard Club is delicious for when you are buzzed at lunch, but the place closes at 9 p.m., their hot dogs are, like, 11$, and they have vegetables on them and shit. Now, if you want something real quick before heading out to the bars, you’ll definitely want to head to Schmidty Dogs and get the Bacon Boy. But trust me, if it’s 2:30 a.m. and you’re looking to scarf something down real quick before passing out, you gotta get the cheesy dog at Bun Run—but I can only have one of those when I’m seven or eight drinks in. And when you’re hungover the next morning, nothing will cure you like the breakfast dog at Chico’s.” According to third-party data, Stafford’s overwhelmingly most-visited hot dog place was actually the 7-Eleven at the gas station by his apartment, though he doesn’t knowingly consider it a favorite spot, as he only goes there when he’s completely blackout drunk.
CHICOPEE, MA—Saying that she couldn’t recall a time of familial peace since the early ’90s, area woman Melissa Maynard confirmed Wednesday that her parents were actively feuding with at least one aunt at all times. “If they’re not fighting with Aunt Linda, then they’re definitely badmouthing Aunt Michelle,” said Maynard, explaining that the most recent dispute began when Aunt Michelle refused to chip in for the shrimp cocktail appetizer ordered for a family gathering at a restaurant. “But before this, my parents didn’t talk to Aunt Linda for a whole year because they were mad that she inherited my grandfather’s snowblower instead of Mom. And now all of a sudden they’re taking a vacation to visit her in Cincinnati like nothing ever happened. I bet that as soon as they patch things up with Aunt Michelle, they’ll reignite the long-standing argument they’ve been having with Aunt Susan ever since she declined to invite them to her small wedding in 1995.” At press time, Maynard announced that her parents were feuding with all three aunts simultaneously.
The pifmgr.dll file was added in Windows 95. Its job was, as the name might suggest, to manage PIF files, which are Program Information Files that describe how to set up a virtual MS-DOS session for running a specific application.
The icons in pifmgr.dll were created just for fun. They were not created with any particular programs in mind, with one obvious exception. They were just a fun mix of icons for people to use for their own homemade shortcut files.
MS-DOS logo
Umbrella
Play block
Newspaper
Apple with bite
Cloud with lightning
Tuba
Beach ball
Light bulb
Architectural column
Money
Desktop computer
Keyboard
Filing cabinet
Desk calendar
Clipped documents
Crayon with document
Pencil
Pencil with document
Dice
Window with clouds
Eye chart with magnifying class
Dominos
Hand holding playing cards
Soccer ball
Purse
Decorated tree Wizard’s hat with wand
Race car with checkered flag
Cruise ship
Biplane
Inflatable raft
Traffic light
Rabbit
Satellite dish
Crossed swords
Sword and shield
Flail weapon
Dynamite and plunger
I don’t know if it was intentional, but I find it interesting that clouds were the theme image for Windows 95, and we have a window with clouds. At the same time we have an apple with a bite, but the bite is on the left hand side, as opposed to the right hand side in the logo of Apple Computer.
Coincidence? Tip of the hat? Subtle jab? You decide.
The “hockey stick graph” is a graph which shows slow initial growth, followed by a rapid linear increase. The resulting shape resembles a hockey stick, with the blade of the stick represented by the nearly-flat initial section, and the handle of the stick represented by the rapid linear increase once sales take off.
All sales forecasts have this hockey stick shape because the people who do sales forecasts are all optimists.
The Microsoft finance division has their own variation on the hockey stick: The hockey stick on wheels.
Consider a team which presents their forecasts in the form of a hockey stick graph. They come back the next year with their revised forecasts, and they are the same as last year’s forecast, just delayed one year. If you overlay this revised hockey stick forecast on top of the previous year’s forecast, it looks like what happened is that the hockey stick slid forward one year. When this happens, the finance people jokingly call it a “hockey stick on wheels” because it looks like somebody bolted wheels onto the bottom of the hockey stick graph and is just rolling it forward by one year each year.
An example of a hockey stick on wheels is the first few years of the infamous Itanium sales forecast chart. Notice that the first four lines are basically the same, just shifted forward by one year. It is only at the fifth year that the shape of the line changes.
1. How much should I expect to hang out with my coworker on a week-long work trip?
I have an upcoming work trip that I’m feeling a little anxious about, mostly because I’m unsure how to handle the social side of things.
It’s a week-long trip with just one coworker. They seem lovely, but we haven’t worked closely together before. I’ve traveled with larger groups in the past, and in those situations the unspoken norm seemed to be: do dinner together at least once or twice, and apart from that, it’s okay to stay in or go out on your own if you prefer. After all, there are others in the group they can spend time with if they’d like.
With just the two of us, though, I feel more responsible for their experience, and I’m not sure what’s expected. Should I plan for us to spend afternoons and dinners together every day, or is it okay to build in some solo time? I want this to be a positive experience for both of us, but as someone who’s neurodivergent, it’s hard for me to read the social cues. What’s the typical etiquette for a trip like this?
Dinner once or twice during the week but doing your own thing the rest of the time is a pretty typical way to handle it, even when it’s just two of you. You can set those expectations early on in a warm way by saying something on the first day like, “Do you want to do dinner together one night this week while we’re here?” That way you’re offering it! You’re being warm and friendly. But you’re also setting the expectation that it won’t be every night.
I work at a company that is very email-heavy, which means that we get a lot of emails and we are expected to read and respond relatively quickly. The problem is that my boss, who is a senior leader, is so inundated with emails that he regularly misses things (I would say he misses a quarter to a third of things I forward him, and at least one-third of external emails that we’re both on from new senders).
Right now, my strategy if I need a quick response is to use our chat tool to follow up. Half the time, he’ll say he didn’t see the email and I’ll need to forward it so it’s at the top of his inbox. But if it’s, for example, an email that we’ve set up a meeting to discuss, often I’ll start the meeting and realize he hasn’t read the email, and then we’ll lose 10–15 minutes while I find the thread, send it, and wait for him to receive and then read it.
It feels like there has to be a better way, and he knows this is an issue and I think would be happy to hear strategies. But I think the strategies I use (a custom priority inbox and judicious use of filters) won’t work for him, because it took me time to set it up when I started, and I do have more time in my day to keep on top of emails. Do you have any other suggestions? Or do I just accept this is how it is, and keep using strategies to work around it?
Accept that this is how he is and be proactive about working around it. That means things like assuming that there’s a good chance he won’t see emails until you specifically follow up on them, assuming he won’t have read emails before meetings (unless you chat him and specifically ask him to, which is worth trying when it’s important), using good email “hygiene” (i.e., keeping messages as short as possible and with the upshot/action needed right up top) and communicating with him in ways that aren’t email as much as possible. For example, can you save some of these items up for regular check-in meetings and not bother emailing about them at all?
That might not be ideal, but if he’s going to miss them anyway, your life will be easier if you plan for it to happen.
I work for government, and it is obviously a professional environment. As such, comments on appearance are very rare though people will give well intentioned compliments on new haircuts, clothing etc.
Today in front of others out of nowhere, a colleague got excited and said that I look like JD Vance. I am around the same age and am a white guy with facial hair so there is some similarity but it was kind of weird and was definitely awkward with others around and with the current political environment.
Is this comment appropriate in office or am I just overreacting because I detest JD Vance and find the comparison unflattering? Also, the colleague who made the comment seemed to not think commenting on appearance that way was strange — should I try to correct them? At the time I was baffled so didn’t say much.
Eh, it’s the kind of thing that sometimes gets said. Appearance assessments shouldn’t be made at work (and if your coworker had written in asking if he should tell you that you look like JD Vance, I would have told him not to), but I don’t think it’s so egregious that you need to go back and say something about it now. (However, if you had wanted to indicate you were displeased in the moment, you could have said, “I promise you we’re quite different.”)
If he continues to harp on it, then yes, at that point you should ask him to give it a rest, but hopefully it’s not going to keep coming up.
4. We’re asked to chip in for gift cards for departing executives
I have a question about a new practice at my org (a mid-size scale-up with 500-1000 employees). Recently, several VP/C-suite executives have left, and it’s become standard to send a virtual card for all staff to sign and a virtual gift card for optional donations. The latest card had a follow-up urging everyone to sign by tomorrow, which I didn’t do on the basis I’d never met her.
There’s no guidance (other than calling it optional) on who should be gifting, but it bothers me that high-earning executives are receiving crowd-sourced gift cards. I wouldn’t be against the company seeing them off with a gift — these people have generally made an impact. Instead they’re getting around £200-£400 in donations from people almost exclusively below them. Typically, low-level employees have a gift card that has gone out to those they’ve worked with, not the entire organization.
Am I wrong to feel uncomfortable about this? Most people don’t seem to want to gift, as there are usually only about 25 donations. Isn’t it strange to ask? I want to mention it to my manager but it feels a little petty.
It’s not petty at all. It’s gross to ask lower-level employees to chip in for a goodbye gift to high-level, better paid executives (especially ones they haven’t even met, but it’s gross either way). It sounds like most of your coworkers agree, based on the low number of donations.
If the company wants to send off departing executives with a gift, they can pay for it themselves.
Whether or not it makes sense to mention to your manager depends on what your manager is like, your relationship with her, and your sense of how much capital it would take to raise it … but at a minimum you and your coworkers should feel very free to ignore these requests. If enough of you do that, hopefully whoever is organizing these will get the message.
5. Managing my energy on days with a later start time
I work in healthcare, and my field is known for its stress levels and physical intensity. Most of my career has been spent in a consistent 8-5 schedule. However, my new job involves some days of a later start and end time, like occasional 1-8 pm days. I’ve found that I’m really used to starting my work day with a “full tank” of energy and focus at 8 am, and I’m struggling to manage my energy and focus on my 1 pm start days. I feel like my energy is peaking before I even go in to work! It’s really tough knowing that the intensity of the work day is still to come. It spikes my anxiety, and I am having trouble making that time before 1:00 either relaxing or productive, and I am also struggling to maintain all the way until 8:00.
I’d love any thoughts or ideas and how to manage this, and commiseration is welcome as well!
MILWAUKEE—Staring down in utter terror at his suddenly oversized pajamas, Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reportedly panicked Wednesday after waking up 3-foot-2. “Oh, no, this is bad—this is really, really bad,” the nine-time NBA all-star said as he jumped up and down to glimpse his diminutive form in a mirror, wondering aloud in a voice two octaves higher than normal how he could possibly play in the Bucks’ regular season opener against the Wizards later that day. “This is the worst thing that could’ve happened to me, and at the worst possible time! I was 6-foot-11 when I went to bed last night. What the heck happened? My teammates are counting on me to be tall!” At press time, Antetokounmpo was seen stuffing his size-16 shoes with newspaper and gelling his hair extra high in hopes of making himself look tall enough that no one would notice.
WASHINGTON—In what they described as a disappointing turn in the ongoing negotiations, White House officials confirmed Wednesday that diplomatic talks had broken down between President Donald Trump and a motion-activated ghost decoration. “The president has done everything he can to find common ground with our historic ally, but the animatronic apparition refuses to cooperate,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, adding that Trump immediately raised concerns when the plastic specter showed up to the White House dressed “very disrespectfully” in filthy, tattered rags and cobwebs. “Instead of engaging in a civil conversation, the ghost just kept howling over everything the president said, repeating the phrases ‘Whooo goes there?’ and ‘Leave this place if you want to live!’ The president approached the creepy skull-faced wraith several times with generous, multibillion-dollar offers but was met with nothing more than a frantic waving of bony arms. We do not take these insults lightly, and America will not back down.” Diplomatic observers warned the breakdown in relations could threaten U.S. interests, allowing the giant hairy spider with red LED eyes to swoop in and increase its soft power across the globe.
Prince Andrew relinquished all of his royal titles, including Duke of York, amid ongoing public scrutiny over his ties to disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. What do you think?
October has been a month of milestones for the Barron’s Branch redevelopment project, the first phase in the city of Waco’s 100-acre, 20-year downtown redevelopment plan. On Oct. 6, the Waco City Council approved $32.2 million to acquire the Indian Spring Middle School campus for that phase, which features park amenities and mixed-use development around […]
The Louvre Museum in Paris closed temporarily after thieves broke in and stole several priceless Napoleon-era jewels, the brazen seven-minute raid taking place just after the world’s most-visited museum opened. What do you think?
“The British Museum better have an air-tight alibi.”
Aaron Goldstein, Helium Expert
“This should be a reminder to everyone to go home tonight and hug all your jewels tight.”
Isaiah Brown, Assistant Musicologist
“My bad, I assumed that guy suspended by wire from the ceiling was just part of the exhibit.”
Third Brother MATA CEO: "The site was buried long before the end. Around the time our ancestors acquired the company. We found it by accident, looking for lithium. Whatever happened there was never meant to be found."
MATA CEO and MATA_BOT stand over a dig site. Many bots and penguins are excavating a MilTek facility.
MITEL S.C.I.F.
Circa 3 years After First Mata_Bot
We made an entry and sent in bird scouts. Soon it became clear that MilTek abandoned the facility in a hurry.
I think it was used for research into psychological warfare. It helps me sleep to believe that whatever happened was just a result of experimental psy-tech. Hallucinations. Nothing more.
Inside we recovered an ancient sarcophagus. The birds began worshiping it. Our bots would eventually join them. What happened next I cannot truly describe. It affected both flesh and machine. Turning all who came into close proximity of it into bio-cybernetic mass.
I fear my brothers would not understand what I have seen.
"Burn it!"
We have destroyed the facility and buried the sarcophagus with a beacon set to activate in a few hundred years. My world is not ready for this... technology. Perhaps MATA of the future will be.
Signed: TB, CEO OF MATA
Puffy finishes reading the attached letter with the box in which the sarcophagus is placed.
Cirno: "Mint idiot. It's not technology. It's Mesopotamian black machine magic."
I have developed a stance over time that my friends, partner, and colleagues all say is unprofessional: I let people at work be wrong, especially if it’s not going to impact our bottom line, due dates, or project quality. I particularly stay out of things if they’re trying to get someone in trouble and it bites them in the butt afterward.
When I was younger, I would over-explain myself, which made things worse/made me look unprofessional, so when someone’s wrong now I just let them be wrong, especially if I’m met with rude pushback, which can be typical in my line of work.
Some examples of this include a mix-up with a client meeting due to time zones. I pointed out the time difference and got called a know-it-all. For the record, I didn’t dance around banging a pot and spoon yelling about how smart I am, I professionally and politely pointed out that there was an hour time difference and we could still make up lost meeting time and got told to shut up and stop acting like I know everything.
My not engaging often backfires for the individuals involved. There was a big client escalation while I was on vacation. The person covering for me ignored it and passed it on to our boss as my error. When I was back, my boss, asked why I ignored the escalation, informing me they were moving the issue to HR. When I tried to remind him I was on vacation, he put his hand up and said, “No excuses.” HR dismissed it because the communication sent in as proof of my “mistake” included multiple pages of my out-of-office reply with steps on how to contact me during vacation and how to handle escalations, with evidence that my boss and coverage openly ignored it. My boss got mad at me for making him look bad.
Recently my coworker “Leslie” spent a lot of time during an important staff meeting critiquing an old logo we don’t use anymore that she attributed to me having designed, saying, “I’m sure LetterWriter did the best she could, but this logo is unusable. LetterWriter’s not ready for this kind of responsibility.” A few people looked at her like she was bonkers, and after a good chunk of time basically calling me incompetent someone else finally said, “LetterWriter didn’t design that logo, a contractor did. And we don’t use it anymore anyway.” Leslie then spent the afternoon openly complaining that I set her up to make her look stupid, which I didn’t.
My partner says I’m being a pushover, I say I’m just letting people dig their own graves. This is a small part of our company culture that doesn’t reflect the whole thing, it’s just annoying and I’m not the only one they do it to, I’m just the only one who doesn’t rise to the bait. I still speak up, I still ask for clarification and politely course-correct if something’s really off but if someone’s digging themselves a hole, I let them.
Today a designer was going off about how something wasn’t the right color green. If you look at the hex code, it’s correct. His screen settings are the problem. I recommended he adjust his screen and he ignored me, so I just let him go off about it and complain up the chain until our project manager told him to knock it off. I think this saves me mental energy and peace, but is this professionally wrong?
Well, first, what is going on in your workplace that people are so routinely rude and adversarial? Telling you shut up and to stop acting like you know everything because you noted a timezone difference?! That response would be out of line for nearly any provocation, so if they’re responding that way about something so minor, something is seriously weird in your work culture.
Also, your boss cutting you off with “no excuses” before you could even respond to his concern? And then sending the issue to HR, instead of just … managing you, as your manager? Why on earth?
And someone hectoring a colleague in a public meeting for “not being ready” for their responsibilities?
All of this is bizarrely adversarial, and not normal for most workplaces. So I’m not surprised that you’ve landed on just shrugging if someone is wrong and figuring that they can handle the natural consequences on their own without help from you — particularly when your help is so likely to be thrown back in your face.
I don’t think your solution is unprofessional, generally speaking. It does have the potential to make you look bad in certain situations if you apply it across the board, like if you clearly had the opportunity to prevent a mistake from being made and chose not to. But speaking up once, getting shut down, and then shrugging and not pursuing it further, like with the hex code? Completely reasonable in an environment like this. In fact, it’s an inevitable result of this kind of work culture.
My one caution for you is that if you move to a company that doesn’t operate like this, you’ll need to readjust at that point; this isn’t a habit you should carry over to a more functional company. In a healthier environment, what you’re doing would come across as disengaged/uninvested. In your current environment (where people frankly seem unhinged), it makes sense.
[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.]
Niagara Falls is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. With a vertical drop of more than 50 meters or 164 feet and a flow rate that often exceeds 2800 cubic meters per second or 100,000 cubic feet per second, it’s one of North America’s crown jewels. Roughly ten million people visit the falls every year just to catch a glimpse of the curtains of water pouring over the edge and the constant clouds of mist at the bottom. But Niagara Falls isn’t just a tourist attraction. The special geology and hydrology of this region, situated between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, have resulted in some fascinating feats of infrastructure, from shipping to electricity to water control. It’s basically a microcosm of all the things I love. The falls themselves have required quite a bit of engineering over the years, and they’ve even been shut off for maintenance. Let’s take a little tour of the Niagara Peninsula (even though it’s really an isthmus), and I’ll show you some of the things that aren’t usually listed in a guidebook. I’m Grady, and this is Practical Engineering.
Let’s get oriented first. This is a map of the isthmus. We’ve got Lake Erie to the south, Lake Ontario to the north, Buffalo and western New York to the East, and Ontario, Canada, to the west. The Niagara River runs northward, connecting the two great lakes. And right in the middle, it plunges off the Niagara Escarpment, creating the famous falls. On the US side, there are the American Falls and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls. And on the Canadian side is the Horseshoe Falls where a majority of the river flows. It’s pretty impressive to see in person, but it’s actually not entirely a benefit. Because these falls pose a major problem for shipping.
The Great Lakes form the largest inland freshwater transportation system in the world. Since the 19th century, they’ve served as the backbone for moving iron ore, coal, grain, and manufactured goods between the American heartland and the Atlantic Ocean. Ore from Minnesota and grain from the Midwest can travel by ship all the way to steel mills or export terminals on the East Coast. Barges and freighters are efficient at moving bulk cargo in a way rail and trucks can’t match. For a time, the Niagara Escarpment was a natural bottleneck between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, preventing goods from moving directly between the upper lakes and the Atlantic. Freight had to be offloaded and portaged around the falls before it could continue its journey. The Erie Canal solved the problem somewhat, starting in 1825, bypassing Lake Ontario. But it could only accommodate smaller vessels, and even before the Canal opened, another solution was being planned.
The Welland Canal runs through the peninsula west of the Niagara River, connecting two massive areas by shipping traffic for the first time in 1829. The canal fueled the early growth of cities along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River - including Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City - and it’s been rebuilt and moved several times over its life. The Welland Canal is really a titanic engineering achievement and, were it not positioned next to one of the natural wonders of the world, it would probably be famous in its own right. Because of the huge difference in elevation between the two lakes created by the escarpment, eight separate locks are required to allow ships to traverse between them. And all different kinds do - from personal leisure craft to the lakers that stay in fresh water to the salties that travel between the lakes and the ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Starting on the upstream, Lake Erie side of the canal, the first lock isn’t really for lifting or lowering ships so much as for control. The level of Lake Erie actually fluctuates throughout the year, and there are longer-term trends as well. Wind storms also raise the level locally similar to the way storm surge works during hurricanes. The control lock does just that: it controls the level in the downstream canal. It prevents excess water from rushing down the canal when the lake is high, kind of like an airlock on a spaceship keeps air from rushing out when astronauts step outside for a spacewalk.
Downstream of the control lock, the canal splits in two. The original pathway of the canal flows through the eponymous town of Welland, while the larger and newer section of canal, the Welland Bypass… well, it bypasses Welland to the east. If you look carefully, you’ll also notice a small river, the Welland River, which passes underneath both the original and bypass canals. On the way downstream from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, shipping traffic passes over aqueducts that pass over a natural river. A hydrological wonderland!
Continuing downstream from the aqueducts, the remaining seven locks are lift locks, more like what you think of when you imagine a lock. Notice how they’re clustered tightly around the terrain and not distributed evenly along the length of the canal. That’s the Niagara escarpment, the same geological feature that the water cascades down at the falls. This is the elevation diagram of the entire Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean, and you can see that this drop is the biggest one of the whole thing. And that’s pretty important for another part of the infrastructure on the peninsula.
The power available from a moving fluid is directly proportional to the flow rate multiplied by the height of the drop. In most hydropower applications, that height is created artificially by a dam. There aren’t that many places in the world where you have both a large volume of flowing water and a significant natural drop in elevation. But that combination made Niagara Falls the birthplace of large-scale electric power in North America. In 1895, the Niagara Power Company opened the Edward Dean Adams Power Plant, built with Westinghouse AC generators based on the ideas and patents of Nikola Tesla. The plant served as the basis for the modern electrical grids we have today, and many of the fundamental concepts are basically unchanged.
But the power infrastructure at Niagara Falls definitely has changed. Where the Adams Power Plant put out about 40 megawatts of power in 1895, now the combined capacity from the region is in the neighborhood of 5 gigawatts. But in both cases, it wasn’t as simple as putting a turbine at the base of the falls. While it might be technically possible to generate power by placing a water wheel directly in the stream of a waterfall like a kid’s bath toy, it’s not the most efficient way (plus it would take away from the beauty). The water used to power the hydroelectric plants on both the US and Canadian sides of the Niagara River is water that never actually flows over the falls. Instead, it’s diverted into five massive tunnels - two on the US side and three on the Canadian side.
Like most tunnels, you can’t really see the extent of the hydro tunnels at Niagara Falls. There are a few conspicuous clues though, like these gigantic buildings. These interesting protrusions from the landscape house enormous steel doors, nearly 60 feet tall, that can drop down into the tunnels and close off the flow for inspections and maintenance. Both the Ontario and New York sides of the river feature similar structures.
From the tunnels, water flows into major hydropower plants on both sides of the border: the twin Adam Beck stations on the Canadian side and Robert Moses station on the US side. Then it’s released into the the lower part of the river below the falls. When you add them up, that’s 39 turbines with a combined capacity of more than 4000 megawatts. It’s a tremendous amount of power generation in one place. But actually, that’s not all of it.
These tunnels divert 50-75% of the flow of the Niagara River. That wide range in percentage of diversion isn’t because we don’t know how much is diverted, but because we actually control how much water is diverted, depending on the tourist requirements agreed upon in a treaty by both nations. During the day in peak tourist season, more water is allowed to flow over the falls to ensure the grandeur of the falls is on full display for the huge crowds of tourists that visit every year. At night and during the winter, more of the flow is diverted to generate power. That’s all managed by this structure upstream of the falls: the international control dam.
I’ve always thought this is an interesting dam, since it doesn’t even go all the way across the river. But it doesn’t need to. This structure’s not meant to create a reservoir; it just subtly adjusts the level in the river to control how much water flows over the falls versus into the hydropower intakes. The US side of the Niagara River is pretty shallow, so that side acts kind of like an uncontrolled spillway. Then, the gates on the Canadian side can be adjusted to balance the competing demands on water between tourism and power.
But there’s one big problem with those competing needs: they both have the same timing. We want thunderous cascades of water over the falls during the day when tourists are visiting, but daytime is also when the demand for electricity is highest. It’s like if solar panels only worked at night. To accommodate this, both the US and Canada have pumped storage plants. At night, excess electricity is used to pump diverted water into reservoirs, essentially storing both the power and the extra water that’s available during off-peak hours. Then, during the day, the water is released back into the forebay of the power plants. You get a little extra power from that drop out of the reservoir into the forebays, so both sides have small hydropower facilities to capture that. But more importantly, you get a lot more water during the day than would otherwise be available to run through the big plants, making more power when it’s needed most. And there’s just something funny to me that the infrastructure is duplicated on both sides of the river, like neither country was willing to be one-upped by the other.
All of this diversion noticeably reduces the flow of water over the falls. Even when they are at ‘full blast’ during the day in the tourist season, only 50% of the flow of the Niagara River makes it over the falls. You can imagine how powerful the falls would be if 100% of the flow were to cascade over. It might seem like this diversion detracts from the majesty of the falls, but in another sense, it actually preserves it.
All waterfalls undergo some degree of erosion as the water and sediment suspended in it scours away the rocks and soil underneath. Without any diversion, Niagara Falls would be receding towards Lake Erie at a rate of about 3 feet every year. At the end of the last ice age, the falls were right at the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, but thousands of years of erosion have caused them to work their way upstream. You can actually see how far it’s already progressed by looking at this elevation map. Over the last 12,000 years or so, the falls have migrated by erosion to their current location. By diverting a significant portion of the flow, the power plants have actually slowed the rate of erosion to approximately one foot per year, which will help preserve the falls for a longer period.
While flow on the falls is downregulated by diversion for hydropower, the falls are never ‘turned off’...except for the one time in the 1960s. The smaller American Falls (and nearby Bridal Veil Falls) have a pile of loose rocks and boulders, called talus, at their base. This pile of rocky debris actually extends a good fraction of the way up the falls, and officials worried that the falls might ultimately transition into a series of rapids cascading down the slope of talus rather than remaining a majestic waterfall. So, in 1969, the Army Corps of Engineers built a temporary cofferdam between the New York shoreline and Goat Island, diverting the water over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls and leaving the American Falls dry(ish)!
After the engineers got a chance to inspect the situation, they determined that the best course of action was just to leave the majority of the talus in place, since it seemed to be stabilizing the cliff face. Sometimes, doing mostly nothing is a decision you make as an engineer, even if you have to do a monumental amount of work to come to that conclusion. So the cofferdam was taken out, and water has flowed continuously over all the falls since then.
It really highlights the complexity of Niagara Falls. On the one hand, you have one of the natural wonders of the world, an absolutely enormous set of waterfalls that inspire awe and wonder in the countless travelers who are lucky enough to take in the view. The same thing that makes it impressive for tourists (the big drop) makes it valuable for power and a major challenge for shipping. And out of that comes all kinds of fascinating infrastructure, not only to facilitate the tourism but the other stuff too: a major canal with locks and aqueducts, the international dam control gates, pumped storage reservoirs, epic tunnels, towering gates, massive hydropower plants, and so much more. It’s really a pretty remarkable place for engineering.
University of Houston political science professor and host of “Party Politics,” Brandon Rottinghaus explains the amendment process and why they’re important to Texas.
TORONTO – The nation of Canada has decided that, on second thought, some temporary foreign workers can stay. “The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is a scam designed to take the jobs of hard working Canadians,” said Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. “On the other hand…did you see that Springer Dinger?! Holy shit. That dude rocks.” “If […]
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