Japan wants to spend millions of dollars creating a man-made meteor shower for the 2020 Olympic games https://t.co/UFdH5jCkBV
— The Feed (@FeedNewsLive) May 21, 2016
Yeah, I know, dangerous, wasteful, and generally problematic even if the Olympics weren’t such a scam. But still…
… Tokyo based start-up Star-ALE is is designing a man-made meteor shower over the Japanese capital city , which will serve as the highlight of the 2020 Olympics opening ceremony. The meteor shower is expected to have an audience of 30,000,000 people and would be viewable from the ground in an area 120 miles across.
As a first step of the project named “Sky Canvas,” the company would launch a micro-satellite into space (the first is scheduled for the year 2017 ) that’s loaded up with 500 to 1,000 proprietary pellets containing various elements. The combustible pellets are made from various metals and elements so that they burn with different colors when ignited at an altitude of between 35 to 50 miles above Earth…
***********
Apart from fireworks, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
PaulWartenberg2016
Calming down from today’s Author Event in Wesley Chapel.
None of you guys showed up :(
Still, I have pictures of it and will post to my writing/librarian blog post-haste forthwith.
MattF
It’s gotten scary in Venezuela. No sparklies.
debbie
Pretty good metaphor for the excess that is the Olympics.
Baud
I’m confident this will not summon Godzilla.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: You’re one hell of an optimist.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Mothra though?
JPL
@srv: At least HIllary dropped out and supported the candidate. Bernie is talking about staying until the convention. Fun times!
khead
I think I want Exaggerator in the next two rounds.
Last year I said THIS is the year I am gonna bet the Triple Crown races at Delaware Park…. Really want to know what the trifecta box paid.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: All drama Bernie!
Baud
@JPL: Nothing means anything until after California. Then we’ll see.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
It’s nice to feel loved, for a change.
(Usually Democrats just come here for some pocket change.)
trollhattan
@khead:
Confess I can’t entheuse myself over a sport where two horses die in the undercard races. What the hell?
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t recall the primary here ever mattering, seems like cheating being something other than an ATM.
Brachiator
Got a lot of little errands done today, including picking up a number of prescriptions. Also ended up buying a small pile of magazines. A recent discussion here on the New Deal led me to buy the current issue of American History, which contains an article on the 1936 presidential election, when FDR crushed the Republicans. Then for fun, the Smithsonian article on the history of Star Trek.
After a crazy and unsettling work week, I am looking forward to a quiet evening.
Gravenstone
Don’t believe them. It’s actually cover for an orbital mass driver system. They’re seizing the high ground!
/snerk
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
It’s not like it really matters now – Just the potential for more bad PR for Hillary Clinton; more fuel for the Bern-ing fire of futility.
I can’t wait for this to be over.
Hal
Blech. So the next star trek series is going to air on CBS for it’s first episode, then move to cbs’s vod service afterwards. Who the hell makes these decisions? Other than Les Monves obviously.
http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/star-trek-everything-we-know-about-the-new-tv-series.html/?a=viewall
Glaukopis
Just mailed my California ballot. It’ll be over soon.
Baud
@Hal: I just found out that Castle was cancelled at the last minute.
Schlemazel Khan
One of the lefty news sites had a screaming headline about “These 3 Dems Just Tore the Dem Party In Half”
I didn’t bother to read the story, one of the 3 was DWS and I don’t care who the other 2 were. There are days I wish I could suffer a severe head injury like my brother did & become a raging Republican from the brain damage like he did. It would seem less painful that putting up with this shit from my own side.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: To be fair, Glendale is it’s own city on the edge of The Valley; I think our leading industry is the major film industry(Dreamworks and the GEC is here).
gex
My favorite part of the week: Saturday mornings I hop on my scooter and go to the U of MNs Baseline tennis center and play tennis. Then scoot back home.
Today I hit a pothole that nearly swallowed the scooter. After riding through that I was surprised 1) that I hung on during the whole thing and 2) that I didn’t spill the bike.
I always expect myself to be more scared by near misses on the scooter. But they really don’t bother me once they’re behind me.
Schlemazel Khan
@efgoldman:
Yes
one of those two things
Mnemosyne
I’m making this baby hat for a shower on Tuesday. If I have time, I also want to make coordinating booties and (thumbless) gloves, but I have an art exhibition opening tonight, a cooking class at the Huntington tomorrow, and then G *really* wants to see “The Nice Guys” tomorrow.
Schlemazel Khan
Creating a man-made meteor shower would actually be fairly simple. Blast a bucket of nuts and bolts into the high atmosphere & then dump it, gravity does the rest. Stuff that small would not make it to earth but it also wouldn’t burn long. There are two tricks. First getting them to fall in the right place, I assume that is a pretty simple math equation. Second would be how big the debris would need to be; that could be estimated but I wouldn’t expect it to be an exact science. I would hope they would err on the side of caution so that nothing lands on earth.
Brachiator
@efgoldman: While I applaud the recent expansion of the Expo Line, giving LA a light rail line to Santa Monica and the beach, the pointless high speed rail system needs to be killed deader than dead.
We already have high speed travel in California. It’s called the freaking airplane. The proposed high speed train was originally promised as a hot run between Los Angeles to San Francisco, it’s been revised to stop at irrelevant dumps that no one cares about. This also means that the train will have to slow down. And along with a 4 year delay and an insane plan to drill a route through the mountains, there is absolutely no chance that travel on the line will ever be cheaper than flying without massive government subsidies.
And so inevitably the dopes pushing this nonsense now wail about infrastructure and the environment and lie outright about cost and relevance.
rikyrah
@Baud:
They were not bringing back Kate. No Kate, no Castle.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I thought you were talking about the microbrewery that’s across from Bill’s house.
We have the whole film industry in the Glendale/Burbank area, not just the special one.
Baud
@rikyrah: I know. It’s insane.
rikyrah
OK. They can create a man made meteor shower. The question is….should they?
MattF
@Schlemazel Khan: Well, you also need to get the stuff going at a high enough velocity– things coming in from orbit ignite on the way down because orbiting objects are going really fast.
eclare
Looking forward to watching All the Way with the dogs. Guess I’ll cover their eyes when LBJ handles his beagles.
Brachiator
@Hal:
The networks and studios are trying desperately to anticipate the desires of cord cutters and also increase new revenue streams. But dumping Trek to this new service could kill the series before it even has a chance.
OTOH, the new trailer for the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond, looks like exciting fun. I hope to Jebus it is an improvement over the last installment, the unnecessary Khan retread.
Prescott Cactus
Getting ready for the Balloon Juice meet up tomorrow in Phoenix. Yikes !
gogol's wife
Worn out by reunion/commencement receptions. There’s nothing for it but to watch Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Edward G. Robinson — you know the rest.
gogol's wife
@eclare:
Him and Her?
ThresherK
@gogol’s wife: No, not in the slightest.
On an unrelated note, my wife has just bought a lot of life insurance for me. What a sweet woman!
bk
@BillinGlendaleCA: The center is much further west. The 134 runs into the 101 and you will eventually find (after taking exits) Canoga Park and Chatsworth.
eclare
@gogol’s wife: I think those are the ones.
D58826
@srv: It was more plausible that Hillary would back Obama becasue she was a long standing member of the democratic establishment. You may not like that word in 2016 but the fact is she had been a democrat for a long time. She was not talking about ‘burning the party down’ and building something new based on Bernie’s plan. Bernie is a carpet bagger to put it bluntly. The democratic party was a means to an end – a national pre-exisiting base for his presidential run. Ok fine, but given that it is reasonable that some people might feel he will not be a team player after the convention.
Brachiator
@gogol’s wife: Earlier this week, l caught Stanwyck in 1930s Ladies of Leisure.
The film is a little stagey, talky and obvious. But fun. And Stanwyck is terrific. I liked that the rich guy’s mother is not a one dimensional snob or monster.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
Robinson did his most famous monologue in the first take. Supposedly, the crew applauded when he was done and Wilder called, “Cut!”
WaterGirl
@Baud: @rikyrah: Funny how the networks always think that it’s the female stars that are disposable. Sometimes they add a lesser known (insert hair color here) and think that hardly anyone will notice the difference.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: Last year they added that as an option for volleyball in the Big 10. Our coach didn’t opt in last year but I wonder how long before it’s not optional.
Miss Bianca
@efgoldman: Wait…that’s hockey, right? //
scav
Argg! The reviews for The Hollow Crown II are about as interesting as I feared they would be. My self-imposed distraction of studying the actual Floral Wars is simply not going to make this wait any easier.
Hal
My neighbor across the street is trying to dig up a patch of dirt in her yard while her very attention starved doberman keeps getting in the way. Her solution? Hurl clumps of dirt at the dog big and hard enough to clang against their wooden fence. That’s in between her yelling at the dog that he’s “being an asshole.” She talks to her boyfriends daughter in a similar manner, so the dogs not alone, but what a nasty person. This is on top of my next door neighbors very clearly dealing drugs out of their house. The number of random people that drive up, get out and run in and out of the house is growing daily. So I guess I have to call the police and the spca.
WaterGirl
@Hal:
I concur, though I would probably call the SPCA first. But maybe that’s just me.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Brachiator: Dunno. HSR won’t be any cheaper in the future. What would BART cost these days?
Yeah, infrastructure is expensive. Yeah, it always costs more than the initial estimates. But money is cheap now, redundant transportation is needed (~ 3 days with the US air infrastructure shut down after 9/11 caused lots of problems), and getting HSR started in the US is a worthy job.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
@Hal: Ugh. Be careful.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl: Well in the old days they replaced the Darrin in Bewitched and kept going with the female lead. Of course she was married to the producer.
I guess that when they decided to cancel Castle they reshot the ending. I was only a sporadic watcher of the show, but it made no sense to me that they wanted to get rid of the female lead. The show seemed always to be as much about her as the male lead.
And I hear that fans are not pleased at all with the loss of the female lead in Sleepy Hollow.
And as background to all this, we have all those new CBS shows with white male leads, along with CBS deciding not to go with Nancy Drew because it skewed too female, supposedly.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: That’s The Valley, we’re just a small part.
seejanerun
Does anyone remember a request a couple weeks ago for donations for a cat named Loki who was poisoned? I don’t recall who posted the request, but I donated and received updates on his condition. I haven’t heard anything lately and I’m wondering what happened.
Hal
@Baud: I never watched Castle but I’ve been reading about the out of the blue cancellation. Meanwhile there are 7 million variants of CSI.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
So where are you going to put the additional airports to handle the increased demand? NOBODY wants to live near an airport.
ETA: I live near rail(and it will be part of the HSR if it ever gets built), and it’s not that bad.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Baud: I use this site to keep up on the technical stuff
Brachiator
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: HSR is like the Bernie Sanders candidacy. It feels good but is a pointless waste of time. BART is falling apart. It might make sense to take this on as an infrastructure project. We desperately need water projects. We don’t need HSR projects in California. It is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem.
These projects are more expensive down the road because the politicians lie to the people about real costs. Then they say they must be finished because we’ve already thrown money down the rat hole to start them.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@seejanerun: Here’s the thread:
https://balloon-juice.com/2016/05/05/pet-rescue-help-bleg-loki/
Here’s the GiveForward page:
https://pages.giveforward.com/pet/page-4g3s946/
The last post was from 6 days ago.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator: Had not heard of the Nancy Drew thing. Damn, they are idiots.
As I understand it, the actors who play Castle and Becket had a real life romance and it ended badly, so there was no love lost between the two main actors. The actor who played Castle had a fan base coming into the show (because of Firefly) so maybe that was the reason, or maybe he got the show runner or the producers in the breakup.
Yeah, that last 2 minutes of “7 years later”was the alternate ending that was added when they canceled the show at the last minute. (not sure of the exact number of years)
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@eclare: Here he is giving them the Johnson Treatment (photo)
WaterGirl
@Hal: I read that fans were up in arms that they were ditching Becket so they decided to ditch the whole show instead of keep Castle as a private investigator, still interacting with the rest of the cast in the new show. (Except Kate & the woman who did the autopsies) My theory on that is that autopsy woman (loved her character, can’t remember her name at the moment) must have taken “Kate’s” side in the breakup and the powers that be took “Castle’s” side. Just like relationship breakups, somebody always gets to keep the friends.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Brachiator: Rail, including HSR, is the future. You’re not going to see electric 300 passenger airplanes anytime soon. Toyota is convinced that cars are going to be electric in the not too distant future. Why? Because we can’t keep burning fossil fuels and keep under +2 C and prevent the worst of the climate change problems.
Been to Japan? Been to Europe? Yeah, the US is bigger. That just means that our need is bigger. Getting started when money is cheap just makes sense.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
eclare
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Oh he clearly adored his dogs, but didn’t he pick one up by the ears? He was president when I was born, so I didn’t see him first hand.
eclare
@Hal: Especially be careful if you have pets that you let outside. Hate to say it, but it is true.
Brachiator
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I repeat. The HSR project in California does not make economic sense. I can’t say what other regions may need.
HSR is not equivalent to electric cars. Also, because the train must stop at irrelevant but politically important Podunk towns, it will never achieve high speeds. So to even call it high speed is a lie.
You seem to think that air travel is going away eventually. Interesting.
Also I have no idea why you keep saying that money is cheap, but it is not relevant to whether the current HSR plan is a good idea or whether there are better and more productive uses for infrastructure money.
raven
Fished most of the day with one of my oldest buddies who stopped by on the way to his new home in Ft Meyers. We didn’t catch much but we caught up!
seejanerun
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks, seems a little ominous that there haven’t been any updates for that long.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl: I had not heard anything about any real life romance. In any event there have been tons of long running shows where the the entire cast hates one another. It’s part of show biz.
And in addition to the female lead, they got rid of another female character played by Tamala Jones. It looks like they thought some of the female cast was expendable but thought they could build the remaining show around Castle and his family. But this would be like having Magnum move from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Dopes.
The Thin Black Duke
@efgoldman: Also, the longer you wait, the more expensive it’s going to get. It will never be cheaper tomorrow.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator: Dopes is right.
Brachiator
@efgoldman: Thinking like this is in part why California keeps falling into deficits. There are better uses for money than a High Speed Rail project which will never achieve its stated goals at a reasonable cost.
Brachiator
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Please. The residents of South Pasadena did everything they could to block the Gold Line. Then they demanded that it slow down and later demanded a wall to mitigate noise. Now they declare that is a danger because it is too quiet.
The proposed station in Glendale is another reason why high speed rail will never be high speed. It cannot travel from Union Station to Glendale at high speed. All it will ever be is a quaint electric choo choo.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Brachiator: I admit I don’t know the details of the California HSR plan, but it really doesn’t matter. The infrastructure will be there for decades and decades to come. It’s not going to be a waste investment. The Shinkansen was up and running in Japan starting in 1964. JR doesn’t stop the HS trains at every station every time – there are overlapping routes, and slower (but still fast) trains can use some of the same tracks. And the scheduling, stops, etc., can always be adjusted over time (and it will).
The towns where stops are planned now may be backwaters now, but they won’t be in 50 years. Development depends on zoning, among other things, and zoning can and usually does encourage development around train stations.
And as Bill said, you’re not going to be new putting airports up in growing cities as the need grows – they take too much land and have too many issues. Adding a new rail station on a train line is almost easy.
I said that 300 passenger airliners aren’t going to be around anytime soon. There are other propulsion options, of course (hydrogen, renewable fuels), but passenger aircraft have particular pollution issues that are extremely difficult to address (as a consequence of their need to fly at high altitudes for maximum efficiency). That’s one reason why the SST was cancelled in the ’70s – a fleet of them would have destroyed the ozone layer. Electric planes would solve that pollution problem, but while, yeah, a couple of guys can fly a solar plane around the world given a nearly infinite budget and nearly infinite time, that’s not practical for transportation. Batteries aren’t good enough. Fuel cells aren’t good enough. Nobody likes the idea of atomic powered airplanes. Etc. Air travel is going to get much more expensive if we’re serious about combating climate change. Population growth, increasing per-capita incomes are going to demand better transportation solutions than massive fleets of jet aircraft. Trains and HSR are going to be a big part of that. We should get in on “new” industry.
I’m saying money is cheap because it is. And since a big fraction of the cost of major infrastructure projects is the cost of financing them over 30+ years, it’s a reason to do things now rather than later.
California HSR isn’t competing with other infrastructure projects, AFAIK. Just like the Hudson Tunnel wasn’t competing with some water project in NY. (Corrections welcome.) It is a question of do HSR or do-not HSR. Killing HSR isn’t going to speed up other projects (usually). And even if I’m wrong about that, that HSR is competing with other infrastructure projects, that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a huge need for it and delaying construction is a mistake.
Yeah, it would be great if the original plan of going from LA to SF (or whatever) was done first rather than something in the Central Valley. But it would be even more expensive and take even longer giving critics even more to gripe about. Getting started now (2022 – sigh) is important, even if it’s not the most-pressing location.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who lives in NoVA and knows what lack of investment in rail means.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: I all I can say is that I have flown form London to Paris and taken HSR between the two. The train is vastly preferable.
Germy Shoemangler
Well, we lost Alan Young. 96 yrs. old.
He was the voice of Scrooge McDuck and of course he was friends with Mr. Ed.
D58826
@Brachiator: The good folks in Swarthmore Pa, blocked the 6 lane midcounty express way for years. They finally got a compromise where it was only 4 lanes at the southern end. The highway was overcapacity the day it opened and the loudest critics of the traffic jams are – you guessed it the folks in Swarthmore. There was some talk about installing toll gates that would close when a car registered to a Swarthmore address tried to enter the highway
TriassicSands
Meteor shower?
And here I thought the Olympics were about people taking drugs so they could beat other people whose drugs weren’t as good.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Er, 300 passenger electric airliners…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: It wouldn’t be high speed in the basin anyway, you sure have a bee in your bonnet on this one. You’ve never answered my question, where are you going to put or expand airports to handle the additional demand.
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
You don’t need water projects, there won’t be enough water to move around above what’s already being moved. Actually, there isn’t enough water right now for the existing water projects to move.
What you need is strict water rationing, and a much higher cost of water, and limits on swimming pools, fountains, golf courses, lawns, and high-water agriculture, like cotton, for one example. Oh, yes, limits on home construction, road building, population expansion. There isn’t enough water, there won’t be enough water. Ever.
The past 50 years was wetter than any comparable period in the long history of tree growth we can build. It isn’t going to get that wet again for a very long time.
Schlemazel Khan
@MattF: if you use the correct materials re-entry speed is more than enough
Schlemazel Khan
@eclare:
Don’t do that! Maybe it will serve as an object lesson for them!
D58826
@J R in WV: I saw an interesting article today on just that subject.There is a movement to begin decommissioning the Glen Canyon dam. Due to the drought and other water usage the both Lake Powell and Lake Meade are at less than 50 % capacity. The idea being that by releasing the water from Lake Powell you would fill Lake Meade, and on balance have less surface evaporation. The key piece of the idea involves the nature of the subsoil around each dam. Apparently Glen Canyon loses a good bit of water thru a very pores subsoil. Lake Meade on the other hand is largely water tight. It won’t solve all of the water problems but it does buy some time to find other solutions. .
BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Most golf courses and larger commercial irrigation is currently done using gray(recycled) water(purple pipe).
D58826
Went back to my Twitter feed and the article about Glen canyon is on propublica.org.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Quite stylish.
(They use purple pipe to let you know that it’s not a really good idea to take a big gulp of the water.)
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Aubergine?
gogol's wife
@Brachiator:
And isn’t Lillian Roth in that one? I keep having to miss it when it’s on TCM.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
Unfortunately I dozed off and woke up halfway through the speech. I was so mad at myself — my favorite moment in the whole film. And it is a GREAT GREAT film.
gogol's wife
@Hal:
And sorry, but maybe I’m influenced by Barbara Stanwyck — what is she planning to bury?
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: Some questions are better left unasked. This may be one of them.
Miss Bianca
@gogol’s wife: Hal hasn’t told us why he hasn’t seen his neighbor across the street in a couple days…
redshirt
There was a largish fireball over Western Maine this week and a new musuem in Bethel is offering 20K for anyone who finds it. UPDATE: It’s not on my compound.
In other Maine news, I came within inches of hitting a moose tonight. He/she was eye level with me in my truck and it was only my superior driving skills which saved me. Also, this was the mangiest, nastiest ass moose I’ve ever seen. I’ve subsequently learned that moose are shedding their winter coats this time of year, which explains how freaking ratty this moose was. Looked like a meth addict.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@redshirt: Oooh. Scary. Moose are big animals (I don’t need to tell you, obviously). I’m glad you missed!
Cheers,
Scott.
eclare
So far All the Way is a very good movie. All of the actors are bringing it with the thunder. And fascinating to me.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Could be Kennedy-esque.
Brachiator
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: You’re right. You don’t know the details of California HSR. And it does matter.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
One for BinP – Reuters:
(Emphasis added.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@J R in WV: Sorry. The greatest portion of water use in California is agriculture. The water used for golf courses, swimming pools and showers and drinking is relatively small. We did cut back only to find water bills increasing anyway because of the decreased use. The people who pulled up their lawns found that the entire exercise was a boondoggle.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: I did not remember that!
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
redshirt
@efgoldman: I’m on the side of a mountain with lots of land, no neighbors, many walls, and hidden electronic devices.
I could stave off a zombie invasion for awhile, but the Feds would roll over me in minutes if it came to that.
redshirt
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks. I looked this guy/gal right in the eye too. So close!
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Some of us are not the best of swimmers. There are reasons we joined the army not the navy.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Brachiator: Well, you told me.
I’m convinced.
Not.
But I don’t live there, so it really doesn’t matter in this case. I’m just a random guy ranting on the Internet.
But the issues I brought up aren’t going away.
From the May 18 announcement (2 page .pdf):
The work is going ahead, ARRA money is going to be spent, and they’re continuing to work on it. Of course, it can still be killed – that’s always possible. But things are progressing, and that’s a good thing, IMO.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
redshirt
@efgoldman: Or, which is typical around here, lots of guns. I have none, so a disadvantage.
Brachiator
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m having fun with this against the unthinking conventional wisdom on this issue. We have a four year delay, which may add $15 billion to a $64 billion project. Meanwhile we still have water pipes exploding, and bus routes cut to help offset the costs of expanding rail.
Four year delay and the new plan to lay tracks in the Central Valley does nothing to address supposed travel problems in the busiest routes.
Your question about increased demand answers itself. It is less an issue as you imply, and the current slow pace does nothing to address even theoretical demand issues. And the idiotic dream to drop through mountains will only increase delay.
There is probably more need for more and better rail between LA and Orange County, San Bernardino and other areas than there is between LA and San Francisco. And as noted, because of intermediate stops and speed restrictions there will never be high speed for this supposed high speed system. Remember the hideously overpriced Belmont Learning Center? HSR is that mess multiplied by 1,000.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: I’d question your grasp of the details if you think airplanes are a viable solution.
ETA: I saw your comment after I wrote mine, your mindset is the same as one of my Republican friends; your mind’s made up, there’s no room for rational discussion.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
One for Germy: China denies selling canned human flesh in Zambia as corned beef.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Solyent Green is people!
Gin & Tonic
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: It’s been known by most people since early on that MH17 was brought down by a BUK. The Russian propaganda has been variously along the lines of a) there were no Russian troops in that area; b) the separatists didn’t have one of those systems, but if they did, it wasn’t the same model, or if they did, they didn’t know how to use it, only Russian troops did, and they weren’t there; or c) you can’t prove that it was the separatists who fired, the Ukrainian troops had BUKs as well, and they could have fired.
Where all that theorizing falls down is on the logic (or absence thereof) of why Ukrainian forces would fire a SAM against an opponent that didn’t have air power. The Ukrainians have an air force – it’s logical for the separatists to fire a SAM hoping to hit them. The separatists don’t have an air force, so what would the Ukrainians have been shooting at?
Miss Bianca
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Is that one of those Soviet-style denials as in “there were no riots in Red Square today”?
Gin & Tonic
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I read that BBC report, and I missed the denial. They said the report of it being human flesh was “irresponsible,” they expressed “anger and strongest condemnation,” but they didn’t deny it.
Brachiator
@BillinGlendaleCA: I suggest that there are more pressing problems than high speed rail. Your demand problem is overblown and even then would not be resolved by HSR. The proposed solution, which involves drilling through mountains in a fault zone will require the invention of new safety technology which currently is not even a dream in an engineer’s mind. And even then it will not be high speed rail. Nor affordable without massive subsidies.
Can you point out any source that demonstrates how HSR will address any real problem at a reasonable cost? More tellingly, can you point out anything that demonstrates that HSR will be anything more than a slightly faster Amtrak train?
Central Planning
@ThresherK:
Nice knowing you…
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Gin & Tonic: Plus, there’s the little problem that the rebels and/or Russia shot down lots of other aircraft in June-July 2014.
And the infamous video.
But we’ve heard BiP’s and Russia’s explanations before, so we know that their views haven’t changed…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@BillinGlendaleCA: I just saw your ETA. I would rather spend money on housing, on repair of pipes, on the homeless, on intra city transportation and water projects. 64 billion would go a long way. That ain’t Republican. You have not shown that HSR addresses any real current problem.
Schlemazel Khan
so now there is word that the Drumpster fire’s supporters are trying to troll Dems & cause anger between Sanders and Clinton supporters. This does not surprise me. LINK
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: To a certain degree, I don’t care. Creating/repairing infrastructure creates jobs. So does digging hole and filling them back in. I am okay with that too, but infrastructure would be my preference.
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemazel Khan: I could give the names of a few suspects around here.
chopper
@gex:
what model bike?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Brachiator: Is that you, Scott Wilk? ;-) (That’s a joke.)
Every been to Switzerland? They have lots and lots of tunnels in the mountains. Including a famous one that was finished in 1912.
Central Valley Business Times:
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
? Martin
@Brachiator: There’s adequate medium rail in SoCal. The problem is that light rail at the endpoints isn’t being built widely enough because of NIMBY problems. LA to their credit is pushing ahead, but the suburbs aren’t, and that’s killing the demand for Metrolink.
I’d agree that light rail should get priority over HSR, but we’ve tried that and the voters have said no. HSR attacks a different problem, and a necessary one. CA has maxed out our air corridors. The only way to continue travel across the state is to spend that $64B on new and radically redesigned airports and you’ll get less capacity from it. HSR is the cheaper solution and it scales better and its environmentally better.
I fly constantly for work mostly between CA colleges and universities. There are times I drive to NorCal because it’s faster door-to-door than flying. The problem with air travel is that you cannot have intermediate stops – it’s point to point only. Flying to Fresno or Bakersfield or Stockton is really challenging, and that means that a certain amount of economic development for those cities simply doesn’t happen. But a rail line to Sacramento would stop in those cities. It would connect the state in a way that you can’t do by air, not without spending significantly more money.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: brings new meaning to “eatin chinese”
Arm The Homeless
@Schlemazel Khan: This is why you shouldn’t debate people on social media. The chances it’s just a trolling exercise are too high. That’s why the silly blue “verified” check marks are in use. But some folks are just too earnest for their own good.
I don’t know what the answer for an ephemeral nest of assholes and neo-nazi shitbirds like 4Chan is. If it were my campaign I would be dropping daily frivolous lawsuits on the Japanese owners of the Chan sites until it became too much of a PITA to deal with. Seems to work for Sony and the other major movie/music houses. Reducing the number of possible vectors to coordinate their little ops seems like a worthwhile venture. I wonder if Japan has SLAPP laws?
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
We should care about infrastructure projects that solve real problems. Make work projects are short sighted.
Wasn’t there some bridge to nowhere that was rightly condemned?
Mnemosyne
For the SFV locals, the Forest Lawn Museum has a nice exhibition of Eyvind Earle’s artwork — mostly paintings, but a few sculptures and sketches as well. It’s free and all the way at the top of the hill inside Forest Lawn, so there are also some nice photography opportunities.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Hal:
Don’t worry, it will be a reboot of Star Trek: Enterprise with a 20-something Scott Bakula clone. Genius!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
Canceled, or died of natural causes?
Brachiator
@? Martin:
This is not quite correct. Metrolink was hurt tremendously by having to rightfully pay out for that horrible accident years ago by the texting conductor and by the costs of new safer trains. They eliminated trains on popular Orange County routes. And ridership is also down because of lower gas prices. They are also hurt by equipment problems which lead to service cancelations and long delays, and also by having to defer to freight traffic. And they are looking at another fare increase.
Metrolink is also hurt by first mile and last mile problems. Getting to the station and getting from the station to a work location often negates the time saved riding the train.
These rail lines used to exist. They were eliminated because they were not efficient or profitable. HSR is not magic. And you will not have high speed travel to these intermediate stops. That is only guaranteed for the LA to San Francisco run.
Another example. Anaheim has already spent $188 million on a new rail terminal. It is sadly underused. Instead of 10,000 daily commuters it only gets 2,000. The HSR train will not go through until maybe 2029. And the rail authorities will not confirm what Anaheim to LA travel time will be.
burnspbesq
@Brachiator:
That’s fine, your cause is stipulated to be just and righteous, but (as I’m sure you know), its slightly more politically challenging to undo a ballot initiative than you’re letting on. If you coose to continue to rant pointlessly at the moon, knock yourself out–but gathering signatures would be a more productive use of your time.
Brachiator
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks for this info about tunnels. I am not sure that it realistically deals with earthquake risk, but if it is reasonable overall it might address some of the concerns about HSR in California. There is still the question of the additional costs involved, but good and honest information as this appears to be should be reviewed by anyone who advocates or opposes these big ticket programs.
Brachiator
@burnspbesq:
I’ve got time to do both and maybe a little more.
But I’d like to see people think a second time about HSR and similar projects. Otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in even thinking about asking people to sign a petition to halt or revise current plans.
Robert Sneddon
@Brachiator: If you’re worried about earthquakes and rail tunnels you might want to look at the fifty-year-plus safety record of the Japanese high-speed rail system built and operated in a land that is vastly more prone to strong earthquakes than staid old California. Due to the local geography a lot of Japanese shinkansen track runs in tunnels and the new maglev line being built between Tokyo and Nagoya/Osaka will be 90% tunnel, about 450km of the 500km total run. The 30km or so of tunnelling for the California HSR is tiny by comparison.
laura
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: and those little podunky valley towns may get some economic action and spur local business. It’s a crying shame that the hsr wasn’t built as soon as voters initially overwhelming approved a mode of transportation that isn’t another lane or two of freeway. Airplanes shouldn’t be the only alternative. I commuted from Sacramento to San Francisco and rail beats automobile for comfort and convenience and mental health! The sole inconvenience was on 9/11/01 when passenger traffic was stopped in order to move military vehicles and artillery.
Multi-modal is the way to go. More options usually result in more options. And if someone can make an argument that investment in infrastructure is not necessary I’m happy to call bullshit.