Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

You're right about the Déjà vu, Craig. But did you notice that somehow the tobacco lobby was able to help quash health care because of cigarette taxes....and then, of course, cigarettes were taxed all to hell anyway, despite NO health reform.

Another thought. I'm actually glad you posted that alarming tax story from Reuter's. The woman who wrote the piece, a former Wall Street Journal writer with what can only be an agenda and a willingness to parrot right wing talking points, should be fired. This outrageous story should be the subject of every news show going -- yet I wonder if it will. This is another example of an outright lie becoming a a part of the news even if only for a short time. What about the people who read about these taxes and never saw a retraction?

Patsi, that may be, but what is really alarming is Reuters allowing a new reporter, no matter what her origins, to press the launch button on such a story without peer and editorial review.

I'll wait for CBob's perusal before I characterize this story:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/186188-u-s-wind-energy-breaks-record-in-2009-can-wind-power-continue-to-grow?source=yahoo

Everything old is new, again.

just to let you know that my personal ground hog day tradition was upheld in usual style yesterday. sumptious feast of roast ground hog, mashed potatoes, peas etc... "ground hog?" you ask.... pig meat fresh from the grinder. iow a very tasty meatloaf shaped in the image of the holiday hero. cute little critter with mushroom ears.

tradition from fidler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283324

Absolutely! I was shocked by that, Flatus. Maybe I shouldn't have been...but...

"Photos posted to news websites showed a rat strapped into a space pod. Reports said two turtles and worms were also aboard."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iran-satellites4-2010feb04,0,3755268.story

Looks like the tax thing is still up on Drudge - sort of -

What sent the alarm bells off in my head about that Reuters story was the tax credit for college tuition being gone. I had just heard Obama explaining his extension of that credit to a teacher in Nashua, NH in a town hall meeting a few hours earlier. There are things I don't like about Obama.... but being stupid isn't one of them.

It's winter?!.... it can't be.... there's hardly any snow around here.

Incense and peppermints...

Maybe U.S. voters are just too stupid to deserve health insurance. It's Darwinian.

But don't worry.

The Europeans, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Indians can run things as U.S. civilization (such as it was) sinks into oblivion.

America will soon be the country where "nothing works."

To: The American middle class

From: The upper class, which controls the corporations, which now control the government.

We don't need you anymore.

We can hire unskilled workers in Vietnam and the Carribean. We can hire engineers and managers in India and China.

You're just too damn expensive, and, let's face it, too poorly educated to be part of our global workforce.

Don't be bitter. We've had a good working relationship for the past 300 years or so.

Before you leave to find work as illegal immigrants in other nations, please pay off as much as you can of your mortagages and credit card balances. We need the money to hire security guards to protect our gated communities from you.

Thanks and, "Via Con Dios."

"America will soon be the country where "nothing works."

I fear you are right, Nash.

To: The middle class

From: The upper class

Oh. One last thing. We'll have to confiscate your guns.

(You can keep your religion.)

Patsi: If corporations are allowed unlimited campaign spending, it's all over for most of us.

I teach at a small campus of the multi-campus Maine state university system. For the last two years our budgets have been cut AND our enrollment has dropped because tuition has been raised 20%.

The upper class has apparently decided that accessible college education for the (lower) middle class is a luxury that "we" (they) can no longer afford.

Bowdoin college, also located in Maine, which provides an excellent education to those who can afford at least $60,000 per year , is doing just fine.
The elites will continue to prosper under a corporate-controlled government.

I sound fairly Marxist, I suppose, but his concepts fit the situation pretty well: it's "the war of class against class."

It's currently -13 degrees in northern Maine.

If that damn ground hog showed his butt up here, it would freeze off.

My pick-up's engine was groaning when I started it this AM. The engine oil was probably the viscosity of maple syrup.

It could be worse. I could be one of those poor bastards out in the North Maine Woods doing logging operations, or one of the line crews from the electric company out on cherry pickers fixing powerlines that broke due to ice accumulation.

(One nice thing about being middle class is that you get to work indoors.)

To: The middle class

From: The upper class

Oh. One last thing. We'll have to confiscate your guns.

(You can keep your religion.)

Posted by: Nash2.0 Author Profile Page | February 3, 2010 8:36 AM
***********************************************************

politicians prefer un-armed peasants

A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded: "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."

Off to the ninth circle of knobite hell: WALLY WORLD!!!!

Y'all have a good 'un--

Nice memos, Nash. 'Let them eat cake.'

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283325

Flatus -
Jax assured me that this was just a fad.

Target: £500.00
Raised so far: £45,353.73 - 9071 %

http://www.justgiving.com/Colorado-Bob

Thought for the day :
" She`s learned to say things with her eyes that others waste time trying to put into words. "

bob......guess i was just curious if the articles left on the stone just weathered or blew away ( i know it's windy in that part of the world) or if maybe someone put them somewhere for hist'ry sake.....

Bob, The old wisdom said the 'practical' size for a power plant was 600-MW. With the wind power we now have, and when they are all operating at capacity (exceedingly unlikely) we have a megawatt equivalent of 38-notional power plants. That's big.

1931 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of H L Mencken after he calls the state the "apex of moronia"

1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix

It seems to me all this fear-mongering over "Citizens United vs. FEC" is overblown.

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl."

--mencken's epitaph

saw hendrix in memphis ' 69 with fat mattress.......

i get the feeling that mencken has no pressing need of their efforts......

hendrix's final words at the concert, "When it's sleepy time down south"

Nash...
it's not just state colleges taking hits.... it's happening all over the nation in public schools with grades K-12. Teachers are being laid off... programs are being slashed... and classroom sizes are expanding. People are in ugly moods and are pissed off about taxes.

This country is killing it's own childrens' futures.

Sturg -
They may give it to the Buddy Holly center , not sure but I've had the same question ........ I'm sure some of it does get blown into Dickens County.
Can guitar picks fly ? Readers want to know.

a flying guitar pick can take a man's NOSE off........

gee Sturg.... if a guitar pick does that.... what's a man to do with his finger when he gets bored....

rebren........that's a question fraught with possibilities.......

Wind was the big winner, driven by the Obama administration's desire to push offshore wind in the coming fiscal year. The request for wind power jumped 53 percent, from $80 million this year to $123 million next year. The administration's campaign will seek to win public acceptance, overcome regulatory hurdles and find solutions to technical problems facing offshore wind.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/02/02/02greenwire-renewables-in-vogue-at-obamas-doe-46954.html

time to make like a tree and leave.......

Detroit may be introducing electric car designs and China may be pushing forward with a big expansion of its highways and trains. But people like Mr. Jiang, Ms. Wijzenbeek-Voet and Mr. Chiu — as well as delivery workers in New York, postal employees in Germany and commuters from Canada to Japan — are among the millions taking part in a more accidental transportation upheaval.

It began in China, where an estimated 120 million electric bicycles now hum along the roads, up from a few thousand in the 1990s. They are replacing traditional bikes and motorcycles at a rapid clip and, in many cases, allowing people to put off the switch to cars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/global/01ebike.html?em

Check your bilge pumps folks -

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/index_lite.php

Cbob,

Just to refresh your memory, when I soke about fad's I was referring to the NOx credits that I receive as a gimmick. I still do. Damn details are such a bore....:)

There is a growing concern particularly here in Texas that some of the wind projects here will be slowed. They are concerned that the state's demand will not grow as quickly as needed to support the added capacity.

I transport alot of the turbines and blades for these projects along the coast. I'd like to see them continue.

Texas has it's own grid seperate from the rest of the country. There are considerable difficulties selling power to the rest of the country because they aren't physically connected.

In fact the electrical generators here in Texas do not produce the phases the same way. For instance a power plant generator produced for a New Jersey plant cannot be used in a Texas plant. it will be out of phase.......just a little unknown crazy tidbit of Texas info

McConell fighting efforts to block political spending by foreign corporations.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/mcconnell_fighting_effort_to_block_poli

why does Mitch hate America....

Flatus -

"Starving And Stunted Dwarves"

[A] North Korean is on average six inches shorter than a South Korean. You may care to imagine how much surplus value has been wrung out of such a slave, and for how long, in order to feed and sustain the militarized crime family that completely owns both the country and its people. But this is what proves Myers right. Unlike previous racist dictatorships, the North Korean one has actually succeeded in producing a sort of new species. Starving and stunted dwarves, living in the dark, kept in perpetual ignorance and fear, brainwashed into the hatred of others, regimented and coerced and inculcated with a death cult: This horror show is in our future, and is so ghastly that our own darling leaders dare not face it and can only peep through their fingers at what is coming.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/koreas-brave-new-world.html

Jax -
Just wanted to poke you , and say hello. There is a " smart " station being built over at Clovis, that will connect Texas to the west coast .

Saw that a few months back. Don't recall all the details. Supposed to be a real gee whiz switch.

Cbob,

Having your own grid is great until you want to sell or receive power somewhere else.

I personally think that fed energy dollars would be better spent renewing and upgrading our transmission system. It is a singular incredibly important goal that would yield real tangible results right now. And it would generate a significant amount of jobs.

It's not as flashy as some new "Green" technologies but I believe that the country as a whole would be better served.

A solution to the high cost of college tuition -

New Zealand virgin auctions herself for tuition

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1104ap_as_new_zealand_virginity_auction.html

"This country is killing it's own children' s futures."

damn ACORN!

"Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been providing FBI interrogators with useful intelligence about his training and contacts since last week, a law enforcement source said Tuesday."

Gee it is amazing what you get when you put someone in our legal system where there are rewards for cooperation.

and what does a lawyer representing a man caught with a smoking , uhhmmm, gun so to speak recommend?
"but she is said to be helping advance the negotiations, along with representatives for Abdulmutallab's family, which is prominent in Nigeria, the law enforcement source said"

Thats right , lots and lots of cooperation in return for reduced sentences. In this case , like maybe you will see the light of day sometime before you die.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202995.html

Jax -

That's happening ........ add these 2 sections to your google news page
Alternative Energy & Green Technologies »
The wires are full of these types of stories -

Silicon Valley makes big push into solar and smart-grid technologies
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_14298580?source=most_emailed

What we need to remember about the low level people like the underpants bomber is that he is just another middle class idealist with his head stuffed full on grand romantic notions.
And he never envisioned that one of his routes to martyrdom was having an amorous bubba as a cell mate.
It kinda sobers the idealism up if you know what I mean.

Jack

Cbob,

Oh, I know that alot of entities are working on it. But wouldn't it be great if DOE took it as its number one priority. This administration badly needs a success somewhere.

How hard would it be to promote (with real dollars) a new smart grid? One that works with present technology and new technology when it eventually appears.

It's mundane but I can envision support from both parties. every state benefits. I think it's a huge job creator. It's a no-brainer to me....but what do I know??

New Adhesive Device Could Let Humans Walk on Walls

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201184115.htm

Jax -

Governor Bill Richardson announced in October that New Mexico will be home to the Tres Amigas Super Station, which will connect America’s three main power grids – opening the door to more efficient delivery of renewable energy through the nation’s power transmission infrastructure.

“New Mexico leads the way in green and renewable energy development,” Governor Bill Richardson said. “But we need the ability to send energy produced in New Mexico to surrounding states. Tres Amigas will break that barrier, creating a larger market for our energy.New Mexico is proud to be chosen as the site for this unique renewable energy market hub.”

http://www.developclovis.com/news/view/17

Jax -
I've been watching the DOE hand out all sorts of grants, it's just it never can compete with Baptists getting busted with Haitian children at the border.

Or the continuing sharpening of the " apex of moronia ".

CBob

Fred did it more than 50 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvMkr6ROF0

Barry Ritholtz does a great job of explaining some of the root causes of the financial collapse. While taking on the "blame fannie mae and poor people" crowd.

"They’re back!

The usual crowd of ne’er-do-wells are seeking to divert attention from their own roles in the crisis, and shift blame elsewhere. These people make up a big chunk of the Its All Fannie’s Fault! crew. By muddying the waters, they hope to avoid retribtuion for their own roles in what occurred. As the mid-term election approaches, we should expect to hear more from this crowd.

The reality of crisis causation is far more complex and nuanced. Looking at the many factors that independently contributed to the collapse, and prioritizing them by degree of causation is not easy. A sophisticated approach is required to separate the prime and secondary factors.

Rather, than just repeat my list of factors what were the causal factors, today I want to try a different approach. Let’s do a “Causation Analysis” of the biggest factors to see if we can determine not just the various elements that contributed to the credit collapse, but which factors actually caused it to occur and what merely exacerbated the collapse, making it worse."

To read more of the article
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/02/causes-of-the-crisis/

Bob

You can't do the power grid piece meal. I think Jax is right our current grid looks like the pre interstate road system. There are pockets of great modern 4 lane highways and they all lead out to the winding 2 lane roads that connect them.

This is a project that the Feds excel. Only they can set the standards and put together a plan to implement the construction.

Jack

"An Illinois primary election that was supposed to set the stage for a high-stakes political showdown in President Barack Obama's home state instead produced intense confusion: virtual ties in the Democratic and Republican races for governor."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_el_gu/us_illinois_primary

Truck driver forgets to lower his trailer

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/02/truck-driver-forgets.html

Imus and Matt Taibbi just discovered they don’t much care for David Brooks. David Brooks is reviled in another corner of the Internet, Matt Taibbi’s True Slant. It was just a matter of time.

Imus and Matt Taibbi Really Don’t Like David Brooks Join The Club.

Democrats and Republicans – Dogs and Cats living together mass hysteria LOL!

How to turn yourself into Pinhead from Hellraiser. That’s an easy one, write articles, like your David Brooks

http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2010/02/imus-matt-taibbi-really-dont-like-david.html

Fellas -
I'll start posting this stuff more. We're not standing as still as we seem to think we are.
As for me , I believe in distributive power, where your house is your power plant. But that threatens a lot of very big oxen.

renee: You are right about K-12 education cuts. Our local school district budget got cut $700,000! You can imagine how many teacher salaries that represents.

renee: One of the ironies of the "teabagger" movement (created & controlled by corporate lobbysists) is that they get "angry voters" to cut the taxes that pay for their own children's education.

The corporations have figured out how to manipulate the middle class into destroying itself.

One has to admire the elegance of that.

Nash,

Don't know how it works where you are but our local school district receives only 3% of it's funding either directly or indirectly (through the state) from the fed gov't.

This appeared in today's Boston Globe...in light of the new DADT elimination push, here's a pro football player speaking out...

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/articles/2010/02/03/solid_backing_by_saint/

MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Renewable energy made up the bulk of new power generation capacity added in the European Union last year, the European Wind Energy Association, or EWEA, said Wednesday.

Renewables accounted for 61% of new electricity generating capacity in 2009. Of the total new capacity, 39% was from wind power and 16% was from photovoltaic solar power, EWEA said.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201002030754dowjonesdjonline000340&title=renewables-61of-new-eu-power-generation-capacity-in-2009

New York Times - Micheline Maynard - ‎26 minutes ago‎
Ray LaHood, the Transportation secretary, said Wednesday morning during a House Appropriations panel hearing that owners of recalled Toyotas should stop driving them and take them to their dealers to be repaired.

Mmmm, I love the smell of fresh bonus money. Well, I would if it was mine.

Nash - You are in fine form today. LOL so as not to cry...sad, but true about not being needed.

63 articles about smart grid tech -

http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=d-R2CZzHMdog8vMXuZQrgapHSUVRM®ion

Box # 91 is 75 % full -

http://www.justgiving.com/Colorado-Bob

Target: £500.00
Raised so far: £45,372.73 9075 %

" Aqaba is over there, it's just a matter of going "

jax: I should have been clearer: the $700,000 cut was in STATE funding to our local school district. This is not a "cut," it's a catastrophe. This district has been one of the best in the state in terms of preparing students for college. That will change.

But you can be damn sure the nitwits on the local school board will do everything they can to maintain funding for "sports."

Blue: what do Canadians call Americans who illegallly enter Canada to find work?

"Ice backs."

Think of all those people who DIDN'T buy a GM car (because GM was about to go bankrupt) and bought a Toyota instead.

Serves them right, damn traitors.

Buy American.

MY current GM pick-up got recalled for defective brakes and my last GM pick-up got recalled for a defective transmission. Neither made the news.

Jax... my understanding is that most of our nations schools are funded primarily from property taxes. And I agree with you on a need to fix the grid.

Nash.... our school budget was cut by the exact same amount, $700,00, when a bunch of angry citizens showed up at a school board meeting. There was a deliberative session last Saturday and the budget was cut even further by another $300,000. I will bet that that budget will go down in defeat in March.

Another thing that is having their budgets slashed is libraries. I'm going to my book club held in our library tonight.... but am seriously wondering if that will come to end in March.

I do understand why people are angry. I disagree with their solutions to the problem. We've always been told that education is an "equalizer" in this country. We are letting it go down the tubes.

A little over 1 week ago, we had raised enough for just over 2 boxes .....
The raw dollar count as I leave for the spark lab -

$ 72,532.77

If anyone had told me 20 years ago , that one day I would be a cheer leader / nurse ....

I would have taken a break from committing suicide by Budweiser, and told them that were fucking nuts.

Sorry 25 years ago -

Here's someone giving a firsthand update from Haiti:

http://blog.bioteam.net/2010/02/02/tuesday-in-haiti/

My daughter's boyfriend is Haitian, born in NYC, and he's over there for ten days helping out a medical team and looking up family members when he can. The guy blogging is part of that team.

"I believe in distributive power, where your house is your power plant. But that threatens a lot of very big oxen."

me too and that's why the hydrogen car sounded so great too good to be true... not only would poop water as an exhaust but put out some electricity for the household. maybe those big oxen you mention got in the way.

"This country is killing it's own childrens' futures."

So true, Renee.

Cbob,

I bought a nice 10kw nat gas gen after the last Hurricane. I test it every quarter for a full day and it works great. It has a more constant frequency than grid power. Cost wise its still not quite competitive with grid power yet. I think that the technology for individual home power is already there. It's just not quite economical yet but its coming.

I think that alot of these new technologies are on their way. Not because we will all die tomorrow if we don't change now but because there are sound economical, and strategic reasons for them.

I think that our impatience and increasing demands for instant change are what has driven alot of the environmental histeria behind our current power systems.

I believe that the market is responding with alot of new products that will slowly, pragmatically change the way we all live. I still have faith in the profit motive as a catalyst for change....

Jax -
That 147 dollar oil sold a lot of people that the future must be different.

Cbob,

It did, but I think the energy producers saw that too.

Alternatives will need to compete where we are now. If they can do that, then it's a real alternative with legs.

Gotta run....just dropping a new Diesel in a tug....

Craig -
Been stewing on your examination of the Sun Oven. No way around that as the next step.
I'll set up a page for chipping in to get one, Post the particular's at my oven page. Raise some at the Feb. Market. for it. I'd spring for one, but money is tight.
We'll get that kit, they're sending to Haiti, if I can't assemble it in the spark lab, we're into an answer right there.

I have a problem with their $10,000 price on that really big one. I spent $1,700 on mine . And maybe 60 hours of labor ..... It ain't as big , but still .... I'd like to see them things getting made.

Been raining like Seattle for hours here.

A Billion dollar rain on the wild west Texas plains.

The trees didn't get the myth memo from the Heartland Inst. -

ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2010) — Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201171641.htm

How bout dem Saints!!!!

"New Orleans Saints LB Scott Fujita is speaking up for gay rights at the Super Bowl"

this is an excerpt from a 2001 paper re an interstate railway system. why isn't this feasible today while they're handing out all that money for hwy work?

"We foresee the development of a new rail technology that could be cheaply and quickly installed on existing Interstate rights-of-way, in rapid response to suddenly worsening oil supply conditions. The principal construction material required is the roughly 215 tons of rail needed for each mile of track constructed plus comparatively small amounts of steel for tie plates and bolts to fasten the tie plates to the road surface. By far the largest amount of the work has already been done - the construction of the Interstate highways. IR merely enables their continued utility under energy-limited conditions. Many technical questions remain to be answered or at least verified, but there do not appear to be any fundamental technical barriers."

http://www.carfree.com/papers/interstaterail.html

Bob

I believe that is very consistant with the climate sceptics theory and would validate their points that the bios sphere is a positive forcer toward returning the climate back to its norm. Used to be a fellow down in Arizona that did a lot of research that predicted just what your link describes

and here's another one written last year about using solar power and hydrogen for an interstate rail system... neat graphics of passenger and cargo pods that i've beeen boring friends about for years...

http://www.interstatetraveler.us/

god, i love the internet

"The principal construction material required is the roughly 215 tons of rail needed for each mile of track constructed plus comparatively small amounts of steel for tie plates and bolts to fasten the tie plates to the road surface."

In reality the road bed is the cheap part. to convert the interstate into railroads would mean every bridge and over pass would have to be rebuilt.
A truck weighs 80,000 lbs a box car weighs 220,000lbs
It says so right on the side read one of them the next time you are setting waiting for a train to pass.

But the idea is pure fantasy at this time.

Jack

more from that interstatetraveler link. i know, i know it's blarney from a bunch of lobbyists but it does make sense.

"The only way to save American Steel companies from being shut down is to buy what they make.
Realizing that the Interstate Traveler Rail Conduit Cluster is a mass produced "Snap-together" plug-&-play technology made from tons of steel components, the broad adoption of this rail design provides an unprecedented economic benefit to steel manufactures. As an exportable commodity, we will supply American made technology to the world using tons of American made Steel. Here in America, the build-out of the Eisenhower Interstate Traveler on 54,000 miles of Interstate Highway will require no less that 750,000,000 tons of American Made Steel!"

"idea is pure fantasy"

yeah, jack, but you got to start somewhere. and the congress critters have bills in both houses on this fantasy.
kinda like the one that got us to the moon.

and as one tmr put it awhile ago "we've got to start building things again"

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283364

Jax, I love it. It's like the days when all the European countries had different rail gauges to confound the enemies next door. God knows those northerners in Oklahoma couldn't be trusted if they got their miserable hands on our power.

"In reality the road bed is the cheap part"

jack, not so when you factor in the costs of acquiring the right of way... probably the most expensive part of a roadbuilding enterprise.

Pat, give the railroads every other section. Worked before. Of course last time it was Native American land--now the land belongs to corporate America.

The fantasy part is that we are going to convert any of our highways into highspeed rail. Idon't see anybody giving up their car in the near future.

For rail to be a success it has to have riders and that means incremental changes to corridors that exist today.
The coastal corridors offer oportunities as does the greatlakes. But out here in the middle not so much.

And it is extremely expensive you can't do it on the cheap as the web site tries to say.

Jack

They are spending 1.5 billion dollrs for highspeed rail(110 mph) from Chicago to St Louis. Where is the money going half for cars/equipment and the needed train stations. and the rest on track up grades(not construction of new track)

Patd -
Never try to cross the Great Nufu desert with Jack , Aqaba can't be taken from the land. He will remind you out on the Sun's Anvil. In fact the whole trip.

Bob

I do tend to be rooted in reality. I like to things that can get done.

Fantasy is for teenagers

Jack

Local Fishing
We have a series of events coming up here that I plan to work to raise money for more boxes.
With that in mind I made this handbill -

http://tmfishcamp.blogspot.com/2010/02/local-fishing.html

I do tend to be rooted in reality.

The reality of Jack from Mo. , lot's of different realities Jack, They really did take Aqaba from the land.

Jack, RFD-TV has a weekly series on rail. This week it was on the glory days of inter-urban transit. In Ohio, as an example, early on in the last century there were about 2500 miles of light rail. And, for about 30 or 40 years it was really successful, that is until the automobile beat the hell of interurban in head-to-head competition.

And the interurban was no slouch. The runaway trolleys flew down the tracks like bats out of hell. And, many of the cars were really plush,etc. But, they served past their time and by 1942 they were virtually all gone.

If we are going to go high speed rail, I think it has to be _really_ fast, like over 200-mph. Anything significantly less than that won't make the trip to the train station worthwhile.

They have fast rail and high speed rail in Korea. But most people take the interurban buses because they're more practical and cheaper. I think it would be much the same here.

What people might tolerate are cars that fly down the road in very close proximity one to the other, like linked BBs. Think back to the 50s and the imaginative articles in the popular science and technology press. That's the technology that will probably sell in the next 50 years.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283388

Bear,
Thanks for the piece,really enjoyed it.

Jack -
A fellow named Picard is about to fly around the world using the sun , he went the the plane makers , and they all said it couldn't be done . So he went to the boat builders, and not knowing it couldn't be done they built it.

Ain't nothin' like a bunch of people gettin' together to do something they don't know can't be done.

The airplane will be named Icarus.

...bad name for a plane; should have named it for his father.

Flatus

I believe bats out of hell were slower back then;-)

I think it will be mostly the time issue. If the can get the current system up to where it is competitive time wise with airports in then people will use them.

To justify the 200mph system you have to really have a sharp pencil. Maybe in the Boston to DC corridor but the question is still where do you put it there is not a lot of land out there and it needs to be totally isolated the surrounding environment.
Imagine hitting a cow at 200mph

During the last local light rail debate here in KC, I took the proponents numbers as to cost and ridership, then using my excell amortization schedule and 10yr tbond yield for interest , I came up with around $50 cost for every passenger that rode the thing. This was just for a short 6 mile track up and down main.
We could hire them all a cab to take them to where they wanted to go.

" Think back to the 50s and the imaginative articles in the popular science and technology press"
where is my air car?;-)
Fusion power is just 20 years away too. Still is the last time I checked.

BTW, I rode the BART while in San Francisco It made an impression on me, just not a good one. But I was impressed with public transportation in San Franciso
Lots and lots of buses of many different types power wise.

Jack

Jack

Jack

"Idon't see anybody giving up their car in the near future"

jack, that day of reckoning will soon come for the babyboomers when their keys are taken away (either by their kids, the state or the insurance co). a mighty large group of potential customers for mass transit are about to be without wheels.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283431

Bob

I used to read those legends back when I was a kid. Readers digest was full of them.
Funny thing, they never really took on the establishment with brilliant contrarian ideas

Jack

love the dc metro... hate the boston t.... like the sf street cars.... especially fond of the 45 minute ferry crossing kootenay lake in bc and the free ferry ride from algeriers to the nawlins french market. great fondness for ferries.

Pat
We will all be dead a long time before anybody builds rapidtransit over the interstates

Jack

http://www.taylormarsh.com/

"Relating to Obama"

"I have been writing about Obama’s empathy and connection gap for years. As president, it’s gotten worse, morphing into a credibility and competence gap, especially after last year’s bank bailout and his cozying up to Wall Street, not to mention the appointments of Geithner and Summers. The result a new talking point from traditional media questioning whether the Senate is now in play. Biden’s seat may go, Obama’s too, with Teddy’s already in GOP hands. So, after Obama’s first year, where he was viewed as completely out of touch, seen to be sitting behind the White House gates while Congress struggled and fumbled over health care, which ended up being handed to the right after Democrats bungled the policy and the messaging, Obama’s finding himself in the position of trying to re-connect to three different groups: his own party elected, his base, but also a group he had trouble with back during the primaries. The Washington Post reflects the latter today in “Despite his roots, Obama struggles to show he’s connected to middle class.”

Those crazy boat builders over at NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-034-DFRC.html

And this is 10 yr old technology

Tony
It looks like Obama was taking on the bluedogs today

To Blanche Lincoln who is on her way out in Arkansas if she doen't do a radical change

"Moving forward, Blanche, what you're going to hear from some folks...[is that] the only way to provide stability is to go back and do what we did before the crisis."

The president reiterated that he would not return to past policies.

"If the price of certainty is for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place for eight years leading up to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression...the result is going to be the same."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/79529-lincoln-presses-obama-on-party-extremes-at-q-and-a

Meet the new boss, he,s the same as the old boss

Kinda deja vu all over again

"The Obama administration's top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as "certain" that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how U.S. officials detain and question terrorist suspects."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203975.html

Jack

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283442

Good evening Jack,
Its about time he took those Blue Dogs on! Thanks for the link..

"The United Nations on Wednesday assigned former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now U.N. special envoy to Haiti, to coordinate international relief efforts in the earthquake-devastated country.

Clinton will seek to organize a mass of aid initiatives and offers that have poured in...."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020302369.html

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/02/groundhog-day-for-health-refor.html#comment-283443

Jack,

Of course they expect it. There hasn't been a six month period since 9/11 and probably before 9/11 when there wasn't some terrorist attempt against some US target of some sort.

Unfortunately we have had eight years of "help, help the sky is falling everybody duck because it's really, really scary out there ... now start running!"

I never used 'certain' in forecasting threats. I don't think he should, either.

We have virtually certain, highly likely, in progress as we speak, likely, unlikely, possible, probable, etc.

Saying something is a certainty means that every other probability has been excluded. I find that highly unlikely.

nash, I love you, pal, but your horror story about Maine schools describes a condition we Minnesotans would love to experience. Timmy the Tightwad, otherwise known as Potholes Aplenty, used an obscure subsection of the MN Constitution last year to rip off the schools. He votoed the budget, and refused to negotiate with the legislature. He actually left town, while carping about the Dems' lack of bi-partisanship.

Having created an emergency situation, the Tightwad then decreed an emergency. There is an emergency powers provision in the MN Constitution. Tightwad's emergency gave the him an opportunity to create the budget all by himself. He promptly took $1,800,000,000 from the Public Schools. Estimate : $1,500 per student, or $166 per student/school mo. That is Approximately $5,000 per classroom per month, or $60,000 per classroom per year.

This will mean cold classes in the winter and hot ones in May and September.

School libraries are nearly gone, they will probably all close. They were great for the 1800s, but what the hell.

Support staff like social workers and nurses have slowly disappeared over the years, I guess many school districts will eliminate social workers and keep one nurse to serve the district.

What do we need new books for ? The first Catholic elected president was the end of history, right ?

Foreign languages ? Drop the courses. The kids in the St. Paul public schools already speak 156 languages. What good id mathe when you have e-gizmos ?

The govs pals want classrooms to grow. Former Rep phil krinkey from the toney St Paul burp of north oaks has said that 200 kids in a classroom is do-able.

On top of that, we have Interstate Highways that close because bridges fall down.

I tell you, Potholes Aplenty is destroying Minnesota and will shortly make all your worst nightmares about corporate governance come true in spades redoubled, if he isn't stopped.

Imagine a 200 mph train flying off of a bridge that has been declared safe by President Potholes Aplenty's anti-American staff.

We might as well name that train Icarus.

I've gone off urban rail. Plug-in and hybrid buses are far less expensive to set up and far more flexible to operate. By putting the up-front savings into a trust fund, transit authorities would be able to keep the new buses running for decades, while charging lower fares than they do today.

Cross-country rail maybe a different matter, if one can see speeds of 200 - 400 mph, w/o contributing to global dimming.

Pro Fitball :

In order to preserve my perfect .500 prognostication record, the Pro Phet of Pro Fitball will not predict the winner of the 44th Annual Suffer Bowl.

However, GO SAINTS !

We're fortunate in living in one of the better South Carolina school districts, better in the sense that the residents take education seriously and put money into the schools.

The people have never voted down a school bond issue, and teachers seem to appreciate the district's diversity.

Go figure, South Carolina.

To Jack -
We all love you. you are our pin salesman in the giant world that is the Trial Mix Balloon Farm.
To Jax-
Changing tug boat motors ?
I was hurled back , to the Ogden Iron Works at 3 :00 A.M. They were Mormon's ..... and I ? ....... well I, was fresh from the woods. But I was on a mission , my mission was to be back in the hole the next day. ( I slept on the back seat of the 6-man , while they followed my instructions. )

I had them re- build my compressor package, my way. All on the company dime. With-in a month , Denver had adopted my changes. We had a hell of a lot more air down the hole , which ment we got stuck a lot less , and we had a hell of a lot more power on the rotation.

When I was a 19 teen , the only thing I ever wanted ....... was to help change the world.

3 weeks ago , I got to do here.

Jax -
You should meet my friend "Spiffy" ..... He was a better driller , now he has a beer store at Idaho Springs -

http://colorado-bob.blogspot.com/2007/04/picture-from-spiffy.html

encyclopedia britannica messed up, too. Got the years and location of the Irish Civil War wrong. Other than that....

Does that mean he drilled and struck beer ?

Drill, baby, drill.

Spiffy and Troy crashed Troy's Jeep into a cattle guard one night at Rifle , Colorado.
The next day, I was made field coordinator . I ran the drill line and the helicopter . Troy and " Spiffy " were the last 2 experienced hands that we had, besides me. We had 5 drills on the line , and 7 squirrels to run them. We had 2 experimental drills broke down in the hole. One was 115 stations behind the lead drill. The other was about 30 stations up the line. ( A station is 110 feet. ) .

I put all the squirrels , on the 3 drills that were working . And I took 15 gallons of ATF to the back drill. I poured all that ATF into the tank of the hydraulic system . And I sprayed red Automatic Transmission Fluid all over northwest Colorado. But I got 20 feet of steel out of the hole, and I loaded it & logged it.

The next one was 10 feet deep , it took 5 gallons to log.

I flew those drills to the LZ.
And went to see if any of my squirrels were dead. Turns out they were just lazy, so they looked dead when I landed.

The next week, we drilled our way up Ruby Mountain ...... the hardest rock I ever saw in the whole Rocky Mountains.
It's on your left between Hayden and Yampa , Colorado .... If you're headed west. on U.S. 40.

It's a small & very old volcano , it's easy to miss.

Cbob

Your blog is behaving very very weird. It goes all "blinky" and makes my computer howl at the moon so that I have to close it out.

Jax -
I wrote all that to say, I wish I was swapping engines with you tonight.
I'd really like to see the changing of a tug boat motor.

Your blog is behaving very very weird.

Nothing new under the sun then is there ?

It looks good on the Mac.

Jamie -
That place is 3 years after " Life Without People ". Funny how I use it everyday. It's my dashboard to the world. I never had as much fun as when I glued all that crap over there.

Bedtime music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZxD3W7YL24

Arguably the greatest "southern" song EVER.

Nite y'all.

Now ......
Back to helping Haitians.

Who's with me ?
All I can promise is tears and fun. The Haitians will provide the tears, I'll try to turn up with some fun.

Please ............. I need everyone's help.

Make a list of 10 of your friends, send them the TM Fish Camp page.
Tell them we are going for 100 boxes , tell them to tell 10 of their friends.

Please , the rains are coming to Haiti.

http://tmfishcamp.blogspot.com/

I have only begun to beg.

Ha -
I can update my pedigree -

Internet beggar.

I've been working on our camp. I have several things coming as well.

But please read the header, tonight. That , may work. Your 10 friends will like it. ..........

Target: £500.00
Raised so far: £45,776.23 - 9155 %

Filling box # 92 ............ 90 people still out in the rain before we make 1,000.

Craig -
Tell our friends we are 90 people short of a thousand. Tell them that they helped nearly 900 people get under shelter in one week. Tell them we have to do a thousand more this week.

The Road Goes goes on Forever, and the Cyberthon Never Ends.

A little more work friends , and we get to shelter a small town, not a village.

Now for some traveling music ..........

Kiki Dee - I got the Music in me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O7mlcQrBFQ

This was in my head on Ruby Mountain .......

I heat up
I cool down
When something get's in my way
I go round it

Old Sea -
Give this to Imus -
Joe Ely and band performing Buddy Holly's "Well All Right" on the steps of the Texas State Capitol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNdVvPgDXEk

Buddy's ghost seems to have me by the throat.

The first time I saw that drummer, he was 12 and wearing walnut shells on his eyes.

Really creepy.

Davis McCarty - Agent / Drummer Austin , Texas

See ......... begging works -
Someone has just donated 252.00

Now , to get some young women in short skirts, and teach Young Crawford to tap dance.

We'll get Krusty the Clown to help us.

Jack sez ... You'll never get Krusty the Clown

Bob sez ... Watch me

Olbermann, Imus, Krusty .......... I like where this is going.

Dear Imus,
Below forwarded to me from Colorado Bob of the Shelter Boxes. Also, he is reminding people that the rains are coming in Haiti and is hoping to get Krusty the Clown to help with the Shelter Boxes. Thank you forever, kathleen. Cowley

Old Sea -
Give this to Imus -
Joe Ely and band performing Buddy Holly's "Well All Right" on the steps of the Texas State Capitol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNdVvPgDXEk
Posted by: Colorado Bob | February 4, 2010 12:16 AM

Running the numbers some more -

We shelter 1 person for 44 cents a day for 6 months.

Sorta makes a FEMA trailer look like Newport.