Category Archives: Miscellaneous

It’s Time for California to Update It’s Passenger Rail Solution

BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, turns 40 today! While rail has more or less stood still in North America, High Speed Rail has been progressing rapidly in Asia (Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan) and Europe (Germany, Italy, and Spain). In fact, some high speed rail lines reach 300 km/h (185 mph). Considering a 767 cruises at 858 km/h, that’s quite impressive. In comparison, the top speed of BART is 129 km (80 mph), it’s definitely time for an update.

But things aren’t looking good, as per this recent post on SI which notes that despite the fact that the US has a 100 year lead on China on the rails, it will be at least 15 more years before the US has a decent high-speed rail line. And that’s only if the California High-Speed Rail Authority starts to build their high-speed rail line between Anaheim and San Francisco, which appears to be perpetually stalled as they continue their efforts to save a dime while losing the dollar. Otherwise, we’re looking at 25 years before Amtrak builds its high-speed rail line between New York and Washington.

California, please take the lead because we’re not going to get high-speed rail for cargo until someone builds a high-speed rail line for people.

The Summer of … Music?

Not that long ago we indicated that today we can carry 40,000 songs in our pocket even though it has only been 125 years since you had to go see a live band to hear a song. It turns out that this is the summer of music since it has been exactly 45 years since the first music concert to have more than 100,000 paid attendees finished. On August 3 and 4th, 1968, The Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California was the first music concert to achieve the feat. Even though concerts were the primary means of spreading music for centuries, it hasn’t even been half a century since the super concert, that we now take for granted as they happen every summer all over North America. It was an organizational fiasco, but probably helped future planners and promoters of such events do a better job. One thing it did demonstrate was the importance of ensuring sufficient supply to meet demand. If you run out of food and water halfway through the first day of a two-day event, your planning has failed miserably.

The Tower of Spend (Repost)

This post originally aired on March 10, 2007.

Well my wits are gone and my hair is grey
I spend in categories where I used to save
And I’m crazy for help, but I’m here getting none
I’m just shuffling papers every day
Oh in the tower of spend

I said to Ignacio Lopez: how bad does it get
Ignacio Lopez hasn’t answered yet
But I hear him pacing all night long
A hundred floors above me
In the tower of spend

I was made for this, I could not sway
I felt that purchasing would show me the way
Out of corporate drudgery to the beyond
But they stuck me in the dungeon
In the tower of spend

So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll
Because it looks like I’m going to be nailed to the wall
There’s no light from the window when it should be strong
A total lack of visibility
In the tower of spend

Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter, but of this you can be sure
If I can not track my spend I’m going to end up poor
There’s a mighty judgement coming, and I sure hope I’m wrong
You see, I’m drowning in paperwork
In the tower of spend

I see you standing on the other side
I don’t know how the chasm got so wide
We were the same, way back when
And all the bridges are burning that I might have crossed
Still I feel so close to everything that I lost
Don’t want to lose it again

Now I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back
They’re moving me tomorrow even further down the track
You won’t be hearing from me again, after I am gone
I’ll be drowning in the darkness
From a dungeon in the tower of spend

Yeah my wits are gone and my hair is grey
I spend in categories where I used to save
And I’m crazy for help, but I’m here getting none
I’m just shuffling papers every day
Oh in the tower of spend

Concrete – Before It Was For Houseboats

It was for oil barges. Ninety-Five (95) years ago today the Socony 200, the very first concrete barge, was launched into Flushing Bay, NY. Commissioned by the Standard Oil Company of New York. It was 98 feet long, 31 feet wide, and 9 1/2 feet deep. This wasn’t the first time a concrete reinforced ship was built, but the first time it was used purely for commercial shipping. In the 1860’s, ferrocement watercraft (concrete ships) wer built in Europe for use on canals. In the early 1900’s, a few barges were built in the UK, Europe, and California. Near the end of World War I, the US commissioned 24 ships for the war, but none were completed before the end of the war. Very little happened between World War I and World War II, but when steel and metal started getting short in World War II, 24 self-propelled concrete ships were commissioned in 1942. At the same time, ferrocement barges played a crucial role in World War II operations in Europe. However, this was the last time they were used regularly for military or commercial purposes. Now they are just used for houseboats. Not that concrete is a good choice for barges, but it shows how innovative we can be when one raw material is in short supply.