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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I've got an honest question: How hard would it be to connect the country by high speed train? I know there was difficulty in California and along the East Coast, but as I do not know much about this, I was wondering if anyone here knew what the main obstacles are?
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -FighteerPolitical, mainly. We know how to do it, technologically, as far as I am aware.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The US has one of the best connected rail networks in the word.
The problem is that it’s all build for freight and not passenger transport.
Also the serious lack of transport infrastructure on a local level hurts trains, there’s no point getting a train a moderate distance to another city if you have to rent a car when you get there, it’s easiyer to drive.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI do not know, but I do know that hypothetically if one wanted to find a comparable example Canada would be a perfect fit in that like us they have an exceedingly large territory with a populace who are unevenly distributed throughout it.
But unlike the US they have good public transit, which would make them a useful case study for how we could go about expanding ours.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 7th 2019 at 10:02:24 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangOh absolutely, as will the health insurance against Medicare for All but that just means the Democratic Party can crush two metastasized industries
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 7th 2019 at 10:08:14 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangCould we do a deal with the devil then and look into car trains?
As Silasw mentioned, the issue appears to be that the network is geared up for freight not passengers, and there isn't such a reliable infrastructure once you arrive to avoid having to hire a car when you get there.
So what about driving your own car to the station, onto the train and therefore having use of it at the other end?
Well, than thet defeats the greener ambitions of moving people onto trains and out of their cars, right?
Unless you mean loading the cars onto a train, in which case there probably isn't the room to do so.
Edited by AzurePaladin on Feb 7th 2019 at 10:19:41 AM
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -FighteerIt might be cleaner than all the cars driving individually, if the science is there. If you can fit fifty cars on a train that will pull them from Topeka to Des Moines and generate less pollution than those fifty cars driving individually, then that might work.
The problem is, you're going to either have to have regular train cars (dining cars, etc.) for people to walk into and sit in during the trip, or else they'll just sit in their cars with the engines running for A/C, music, and so on. It would basically need to be designed similarly to car ferries.
It's been fun.As Silasw mentioned, the issue appears to be that the network is geared up for freight not passengers, and there isn't such a reliable infrastructure once you arrive to avoid having to hire a car when you get there.
So what about driving your own car to the station, onto the train and therefore having use of it at the other end?
Not really, any mass movement towards decreasing the numbers of cars on the road will inevitably result in automobile maker backlash. The problem with dealing with the devil is that you're dealing with the devil.
Furthermore, if there isn't reliable infrastructure then we could just y'know make some more. Independent of the Green New Deal the Democratic Party already has a comprehensive infrastructure plan
so it's not like there isn't precedent for just creating more infrastructure. The entire point of the Green New Deal is that it's comprehensive and ambitious, this sounds like an obstacle whose subjugation is exceedingly possible.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 7th 2019 at 10:26:46 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangActually I think the car train idea is great. The point of railways isn't necessarily to get people out of cars, it's to compete with airports. A car train would be really good at that-it gets you to the location you want to in the relative comfort of your car, and better yet, you get to bring your car with you.
Y'see, the big thing with trains is that they limit human mobility-you have to follow the train's schedule and it only takes you to where the rails go. This is why there's the term "railroading". By contrast, you have a lot more freedom of motion with a car.
If you can get your car loaded up onto a train with you safely inside of it, you can basically switch between train and car depending on what's more convenient for you.
Leviticus 19:34Man, this thread moves fast and I don't remember to check it often enough to avoid finding a big backlog just as I'm about to turn in for the night. Anything major over the past 20 pages that hasn't been covered by, say, the WTFJHT feed? I hear Trump is whining about Adam Schiff recruiting former White House employees for the House investigation into Trump.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Because anything that makes Trump mad is generally a good thing:
Trump furious after Schiff hires former NSC aides to help oversee his administration
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/07/politics/adam-schiff-trump-white-house-staffers/index.html
The aide declined to say how recently the newly hired officials worked at the council, whether they served under Trump or to identify the individuals. But the move appears to have enraged the President and some members of his senior staff, who view the move as an intrusion. It comes as Democrats prepare to wield new investigative power after winning a House majority in 2018.
Trump fumed on Twitter Thursday about the recently launched investigations led by the Democratic intelligence chair and suggested he was raiding the White House staff.
Edited by sgamer82 on Feb 7th 2019 at 8:54:22 AM
https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f
David Bezos (Amazon and the Washington Post) claims that the National Enquirer was attempting to blackmail and extort him as part of a larger campaign on behalf of President Trump as well as the Saudi government.
Some samples:
A few days after hearing about Mr. Pecker’s apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
My lawyers argued that AMI has no right to publish photos since any person holds the copyright to their own photos, and since the photos in themselves don’t add anything newsworthy.
AMI’s claim of newsworthiness is that the photos are necessary to show Amazon shareholders that my business judgment is terrible. I founded Amazon in my garage 24 years ago, and drove all the packages to the post office myself. Today, Amazon employs more than 600,000 people, just finished its most profitable year ever, even while investing heavily in new initiatives, and it’s usually somewhere between the #1 and #5 most valuable company in the world. I will let those results speak for themselves.
Here's the blackmail e-mail.
From: Howard, Dylan [dhoward@amilink.com] (Chief Content Officer, AMI) Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 3:33 PM To: Martin Singer (litigation counsel for Mr. de Becker) Subject:. Jeff Bezos & Ms. Lauren Sanchez Photos
CONFIDENTIAL & NOT FOR DISTRIBIUTION
Marty:
I am leaving the office for the night. I will be available on my cell — 917 XXX-XXXX.
However, in the interests of expediating this situation, and with The Washington Post poised to publish unsubstantiated rumors of The National Enquirer’s initial report, I wanted to describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering.
In addition to the “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” — The Enquirer obtained a further nine images. These include:
· Mr. Bezos face selfie at what appears to be a business meeting.
· Ms. Sanchez response — a photograph of her smoking a cigar in what appears to be a simulated oral sex scene.
· A shirtless Mr. Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring. He’s wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.
· A full-length body selfie of Mr. Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks, with his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring.
· A selfie of Mr. Bezos fully clothed.
· A full-length scantily-clad body shot with short trunks.
· A naked selfie in a bathroom — while wearing his wedding ring. Mr. Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.
· Ms. Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.
· Ms. Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage.
It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly.
Dylan.''
Yeah, that's blackmail.
Notably, the NE is cooperating with the investigation of Trump at this time.
Yeesh.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 7th 2019 at 7:59:46 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.RE: car trains: Already a thing
, just in one part of the country. Now, if you wanna talk running such trains in other parts of the nation...
Given Trump's history with the Enquirer and the fact it's very likely the Saudi part has to do with a certain reporter's murder, it's nasty as well as obvious.
Its also fairly weak blackmail material given he's already in a divorce over his affairs.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Someone on RPG.net summarized it succinctly.
Thiel had 2 billion while Bezos has 89.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 7th 2019 at 8:17:04 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

However, I've read SEWHA, in particular his chapter on nuclear energy sources, and that is emphatically not what he concludes. He is in fact a proponent of nuclear energy, and documents that we have enough uranium and/or thorium to last us at higher than current consumption levels a thousand years if not more. Building and decommissioning nuclear facilities is difficult and expensive (it is by far more expensive across the lifetime of the reactor than the fuel itself), and the fuel does present a challenge in terms of storage and safety, but nevertheless he concludes that these barriers are surmountable using current technology.
Oh wow, I expected the source to be bogus but this is way worse.
This is really comforting, thank you
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Feb 7th 2019 at 9:50:30 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang