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Communication, transportation, information technology and commerce have also been inextricably intertwined since the beginning of human history, and they still remain closely related today.

“The success of the first electronic telegraph line in 1844 opened an era of modern communication in America. Before the telegraph there existed no separation between transportation and communication. Information traveled only as fast as the messenger who carried it.” — D. J. Czitrom, Media and the American Mind

This reality was even codified in the Dewey Decimal library classification system:
380 Commerce, communications, transportation

See Communication, System, Media, Information Technology and Commerce

Subpages

Modes Ground (Cycle, Automobile, Train), Sea, Air, Space

Resources

These are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma. More…

General

Portal

Transport Web
The Transportation Research Board
Transportation Subject Guide (Library of Congress)
Top Ten Archive, Travel & Transportation (Infoplease)
Travel & Transportation (Infoplease)
Transportation (Martindale’s Reference Desk)
Transportation (Wolfram Alpha)
Transport Portal (Wikipedia)

Dictionary

transportation : system of conveyance or travel from one place to another — Webster See also OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. Transport is important since it enables trade between peoples, which in turn establishes civilizations. — Wikipedia

Britannica

Outline

Outline of Transportation (Wikipedia)
Outline of Vehicles (Wikipedia)

Search

Search Engine Guide, WolframAlpha

Innovation

Innovations Report

Science

Transportation Science Journal
Last Word: The science of everyday things, Transport (New Scientist)
Transportation Planning (Wikipedia)

Technology

Transportation Engineering (Wikipedia)

Commerce

Transportation Industry Profile

Preservation

History

History of Transportation (Smithsonian)
A Timeline of Transport in World History (Tim Lambert)
History of Transportation (Engineering and Technology History)
Transport History (Wikipedia)
Timeline of Transportation and Space Exploration (Wikipedia)

Quotation

Quotations Page

Museum

Note: This is a 360° Video — press and hold to explore it!

Swiss Museum of Transport
New York Museum of Transportation
America on the Move (Exhibit, Smithsonian)

Library

National Transportation Library
Transportation and Communication Maps (Library of Congress)
Transportation Library (Northwestern University)
WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library

Participation

Education

Course

OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Organization

Transportation Associations (BTS)
Institute of Transportation Engineers
The Transportation Research Board

News

Science Daily, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Seeker, NPR Archives

Book

National Academies Press, ISBNdb

Government

US Dept. of Transportation
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (US Dept. of Transportation)
TransportLaw, Transportation Law (HG.org)

Document

USA.gov

Expression

Fun

Humor

Travel and Transportation Humor (Barnes & Nobel)

Toy

Toy Cars, Planes & Trains, (TheToyBoat.com)

Hobby

Google Used Tiny Cameras to Street View the World’s Largest Model Railway (Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo)
You Can Now Visit The World’s Largest Model Railroad In Street View (Frederic Lardinois, Tech Crunch)

Miniatur Wunderland (Google Street View)
Miniatur Wunderland, Explore (Google Street View)
Miniatur Wunderland, Sections (Google Street View)
Miniatur Wunderland, Behind the scenes (Google Street View)

Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, Germany (Official Web Site)
Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, Germany (Wikipedia)

Model vehicle kits (Tower Hobbies)

Adventure

Travel Center (Martindale’s Reference Desk)

Poem

OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form

Music

Song Lyrics

Future

The future of cars, planes and rockets (TED Talk Channel)

Fiction

<Fictional Vehciles, Category (Wikipedia)
Fictional Vehicles, List (Wikipedia)

More…

Cosma Posts…

• Zip the World! (11/15/2019) - Virtual zipline rides are addictive, and they’re also a neat way to see the world! I found this out by accident. While I was writing my last post about Niagara Falls, I stumbled over this fun little 360° video of a zipline ride there. It was a nice enough video, but it didn’t quite make … Continue reading Zip the World!
• Yellow Submarines (6/21/2019) - My last post was about an adventure with seals doing science in Antarctica. This adventure begins where that one left off, but this is a very different, and fun excursion that happened because Boaty McBoatface surfaced in my news feed. In case you never heard of him, Boaty’s a submarine that got his name via … Continue reading Yellow Submarines
• Wingsuit Rush! (9/21/2018) - Hey, adrenaline junkies, how about a quick fix? Remember all of those action movies where people jump out of airplanes or off of buildings wearing wingsuits? Did you ever think it would be cool to do that for real? Well, now you can get a sense of what it would be like. Here are some … Continue reading Wingsuit Rush!
• When cars fly… (3/8/2018) - The Geneva International Motor Show is going on now, so watch for the latest and greatest cars to be in the news for the next few weeks. Of all the cool new cars this year, the PAL-V Liberty is getting more buzz than most of the others, and that’s because it can fly! Yes, that’s … Continue reading When cars fly…
• Visioning Spacesteads (8/8/2018) - Space, the final frontier… Humans have been imagining what it would be like to setup homesteads and live in space for about as long as they’ve been imagining how to get there, but the process didn’t really take off until after we actually got there. Back in the 1970’s NASA dedicated some resources to the … Continue reading Visioning Spacesteads
• Up, Up and Away (8/31/2017) - How about a ten minute break from all of the news about the epic flooding (NPR), massive asteroid (NASA) and scary politics (The Economist)? Here are some nifty 360° Videos that will take you on some fairly realistic virtual rides in hot air balloons! This first clip is from the The Golden Ring of Russia … Continue reading Up, Up and Away
• Under the Ice (6/14/2019) - To paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous words in The Lord of the Rings, “It’s a dangerous business, clicking on a link. You glance at a story, and if you don’t watch out, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” This week I innocently clicked on a link to this story from the American … Continue reading Under the Ice
• Trippy Tech (1/10/2019) - You might notice an uptick in news about “future tech” crossing your radar over the next week or so. That’s because the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is going on in Las Vegas this week, and pretty much every news outlet sends someone to cover it. That’s partly because they need something fun to talk about … Continue reading Trippy Tech
• Touch the Sun (12/6/2019) - Remember how Icarus wanted to touch the Sun, but met his demise instead? Well, scientists at NASA wanted to touch the Sun too, but unlike Icarus, they succeeded! Better yet, they are beginning to share what they learned by doing it! Before we get into all of that, let’s go back and start at the … Continue reading Touch the Sun
• Tall Ships (6/17/2017) - Over 50 Tall Ships are in Boston as part of the festivities related to the Rendez‑Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta, a transatlantic race to six countries taking place over the course of five months. The race started at Royal Greenwich in Great Britain on April 13 and will finish in Le Havre, France between August … Continue reading Tall Ships
• Super Bowl of Astronomy (1/15/2018) - The annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, a.k.a. the “Super Bowl of Astronomy” was held in Washington DC last week. While it might not have as much cachet as the Consumer Electronics Show, great tidbits from the conference do slip into the mainstream media from time to time. For example, Phys.org did a nice … Continue reading Super Bowl of Astronomy
• Strange Stays (8/30/2019) - I concluded my last post about Sand Art with highlighting how Booking.com offered the chance to stay in a sandcastle as a promotion for Coney Island’s Sand Sculpting Competition. Here’s a link with more on that unusual “opportunity.” Giant Coney Island sandcastle offers sleepovers (Summer Delaney, WPIX) That may have sounded like a one-off type … Continue reading Strange Stays
• Start your engines! (5/27/2018) - Postscript (May 28, 2018) The 102nd running of the Indy 500 has come and gone. It definitely wasn’t the most exciting race in history. Still, it was the Indy 500, so it can only be so boring. Here’s a clip that recaps the whole race in all of its glory in just three and a … Continue reading Start your engines!
• Space Rocks! (1/4/2019) - It was a fantastic holiday season for space fans! In fact, there was so much going on, it was almost impossible to keep up with it all. According to your news sources and interests, you have probably heard about at least some of the amazing things that happened, but chances are you haven’t heard about … Continue reading Space Rocks!
• Space Art & Junk (1/30/2018) - In certain circles it is not uncommon to trip across the debate “Is graffiti art?” You can also find scads about it online if you are so inclined (Google). However, the debate doesn’t come up all that often in the context of conversations about satellites or space… until now. Earlier this month a company named … Continue reading Space Art & Junk
• Santa’s Escapades (12/24/2019) - It’s that time! What time, you ask? Time to track Santa of course! You have probably heard that there are a couple of ways to do it, but just in case you haven’t, or you need a refresher, here’s a great article that explains all about how North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Google … Continue reading Santa’s Escapades
• RIP Rossetta! (10/1/2016) - The “Little Mission that Could” has come to an end, but what a mission it was to watch! Rosetta Concludes Mission with a Crash (Megan Gannon, Scientific American) Rosetta Mission Ends With Spacecraft’s Dive Into Comet (Kenneth Chang, New York Times) It was such a joy to watch each historic milestone the mission passed over … Continue reading RIP Rossetta!
• Perspectives on Earth (11/23/2017) - Last week NASA released this fascinating video entitled Our Living Planet based upon 20 years of data from satellites that observe all plant life at the surface of the land and ocean. You can find out more about the video from this article. The Changing Colors of our Living Planet (NASA) Of course, releasing fantastic … Continue reading Perspectives on Earth
• Octopuses from Space! (5/20/2018) - Did you hear the one about the octopuses from space? It sounds like the title of a cheesy sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, this time, or at least, yet. Instead, it’s actually an oddball theory that’s been put forth in a recently published “scientific” article that’s getting quite a lot of buzz in … Continue reading Octopuses from Space!
• Niagara’s Dare (11/8/2019) - Last week, on Halloween night, the semi-famous Niagara Scow threatened to join the long list of things that have gone over Niagara Falls. Many media outlets picked the story up, so you may have heard it too. Here’s a segment from NBC Nightly News. When I heard the story, it struck me that people who’ve … Continue reading Niagara’s Dare
• NASA’s Excellent Adventures (9/13/2017) - NOTE: This post was updated on the morning of September 15th, see new videos below. NASA is always up to something fascinating. There are so many milestones and discoveries, it’s hard to resist featuring them in every post. However, there are a few events that definitely deserve special attention right now. First, August 20th and … Continue reading NASA’s Excellent Adventures
• Mars is hard! (11/25/2018) - Update 8:30 PM November 26, 2018 (EST) Touchdown! Mars InSight lander reaches red planet (Alexandra Witze, Nature) NASA’s InSight Mission Triumphantly Touches Down on Mars (Ian O’Neill, Scientific American) InSight has landed with Updates (Emily Lakdawalla, Planetary Society) Landing Replay (SciNews) Original Post If you hear a phrase like “six and a half minutes of … Continue reading Mars is hard!
• Mars 3D (11/16/2016) - Mars is getting even more attention than usual this week, and that is “mostly” because National Geographic began airing their special six part Mars series on Monday nights (9/8c). Here’s a trailer and links about it… Virtual Trip to Mars Offers Ultimate Preview to Crewed Mission (Nadia Drake, National Geographic) Inside Nat Geo’s Incredible Documentary … Continue reading Mars 3D
• Lunar Landings (7/19/2019) - Saturday, July 20th is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, and there’s a massive media blitz surrounding the occasion. Pretty much every major news outlet is covering it in some way, and it’s no surprise that NASA is leading the publicity frenzy. On Friday at 1 p.m. (EDT) NASA is broadcasting 50 … Continue reading Lunar Landings
• Jellyfish Therapy (1/24/2019) - Feeling stressed out and need to relax? How about a nice swim in a swarm of jellyfish? What, that’s not a remedy for stress, you say! You mean by using imaginative thinking, right? Well, no, I do mean it literally. There’s an actual place called Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk island in Palau where you … Continue reading Jellyfish Therapy
• Island Escapes (1/3/2018) - One of the more entertaining stories to hit the net over the New Year’s weekend was a tale of some hearty Kiwis who successfully got away from a local alcohol ban by building their own island in nearby international waters. New Zealanders build island in bid to avoid alcohol ban (BBC News) To Avoid New … Continue reading Island Escapes
• Hot car from the future… (11/8/2017) - No, this isn’t about “That Car“ — this is about a new Lamborghini that is making a debut at MIT’s EmTech Conference this week. The Terzo Millennio is a hot new “concept” car that is the product of a collaboration between Lamborghini and MIT, and here is a one minute glimpse of this newest sensation … Continue reading Hot car from the future…
• Halloween@NASA (10/31/2019) - The folks at NASA love Halloween, and they do something to celebrate every year. For example, the engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab have been holding a pumpkin carving contest for almost a decade, and stories about their ingenuity invariably make it into the news. Here’s a video from Wired about their 2016 competition. Here’s … Continue reading Halloween@NASA
• Gulliver’s Gate (9/20/2017) - Remember when you read or watched Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (Wikipedia). Did you ever think it would be cool to see the world from the Lilliputian’s perspective? Well, now you can, and you can even take a trip around the world in 80 minutes to boot 🙂 All you have to do is visit Gulliver’s … Continue reading Gulliver’s Gate
• Great Views of Earth (4/22/2018) - April 22nd is Earth Day! In honor of that, here are some great ways to see the honoree. First, you can get a nice view from this neat 360° Video from Seeker. It essentially shows you what it would feel like if you could just fly straight up and see the Earth from space. National … Continue reading Great Views of Earth
• Great Eyes o’ the Sea (6/28/2019) - The news is full of stories about how a giant squid was filmed in U.S. waters for the first time. Here’s a slightly enhanced version of the clip that has caused all of the commotion and a link to the companion article by ABC7 that published this clip. Wondrous 10-foot giant squid spotted deep in … Continue reading Great Eyes o’ the Sea
• Gone Beaching! (7/4/2019) - It’s high summer here in North America, and it’s also the time for “official” national holidays, so a lot of people are hanging up their proverbial gone fishing signs. However, I tend to be more the type to hang up a gone beaching sign. Since I live in the Boston area, and I’m also a … Continue reading Gone Beaching!
• Go for a fly! (1/17/2019) - Want a quick break? Why go for a walk or coffee when you go for a fly instead? Here are some short 360° videos that will have you soaring like a bird in a jiffy! This first video from The New York Times Daily 360 will take you paragliding over Peru. Next, this video from … Continue reading Go for a fly!
• Get Lost in Space! (9/14/2018) - Way back in August, in anticipation of the start of a new school year, I set out to update the pages on this site related to space. Those pages tend to be popular among the teachers and students who use Cosma, and I happen to enjoy updating them, too. It sounded like a short, fun … Continue reading Get Lost in Space!
• Extreme Biking, Artfully! (4/12/2019) - This week I came across something that I thought was fairly unique. There is a Scottish BMX rider by the name of Kriss Kyle that has elevated his extreme biking into an art. Here’s a video published by Red Bull that starts out with a brief introduction to the young man and then transitions into … Continue reading Extreme Biking, Artfully!
• Exoplanet Junket (6/2/2018) - I’m on a vacation of sorts, so it’s no surprise that stories about travel tend to catch my eye. However, it is surprising if the story happens to be about something that NASA’s done. This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau. The core of the project consists of … Continue reading Exoplanet Junket
• ExoMars (10/19/2016) - Oct. 21 Update: Unfortunately, the ExoMars mission’s Schiaparelli lander did not make a successful landing due to technical difficulties, and the crash site has been found. Happily, the mother ship did successfully enter orbit. Why Schiaparelli Probe’s Mars ‘Crash Land’ Is No Failure (Mason Peck, Newsweek) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter views Schiaparelli landing site (ESA) Here’s … Continue reading ExoMars
• Enterprise (1/22/2017) - Star Trek fans, take notice. Here’s a cool new 360° video that takes you where you’ve never gone before… or well, at least not outside of a 2D screen. It’s a grand up-close tour of the Enterprise, and it was posted by CBS to promote the series. Check it out! (This is a 360° YouTube … Continue reading Enterprise
• Belize Blues (3/1/2019) - Given the weather in Boston, it’s no shocker that a story about Belize caught my eye. It was about Belize’s Great Blue Hole, and more specifically, about a mission to explore it that took place late last year. The mission got a lot of attention at the time because the crew included Richard Branson and … Continue reading Belize Blues
• Asteroids Galore! (6/27/2018) - Head’s up! You’re going to hear a lot about asteroids over the next week or so. The good news is that none of it is related to any specific asteroid hitting us. This media blitz is due to a trifecta of asteroid related events this week. One big reason you’ll hear so much about asteroids … Continue reading Asteroids Galore!
• A Golden Gift (11/28/2017) - If you’re looking for a perfect gift for your favorite geek, look no further. Now you can give them a copy of the Voyager Golden Record. Up until a year ago, you couldn’t buy a copy, but in 2016 Ozma Records ran a brilliant Kickstarter campaign to issue a limited vinyl edition. The campaign was … Continue reading A Golden Gift

News from other sources…