H/T to Roger Henry for the link.
September 25, 2011
August 8, 2011
Subsidized flights from remote locations
Steve Chapman knows where to get the “best” deal in government subsidy of domestic flights:
As a resident of Illinois, I’d never had any particular desire to fly from McCook, Nebraska, to Denver. But lately, I’ve been looking for an opportunity. Turns out the federal government is willing to pay me a handsome fee to do it.
Oh, I wouldn’t get the cash directly. But the Department of Transportation provides more than $2 million to subsidize that particular route, which works out to about $1,000 for every passenger. My fare, meanwhile, would be less than $150.
I could get an even bigger hand on the hop from Lewistown, Montana, to Billings—$1,343. But if I’m feeling the need for indulgence, there is nothing to beat the flight from Ely, Nevada, to Denver, for which Washington will kick in $3,720. For that sum, of course, it could buy me a perfectly functional used car.
These extravagances are part of the Essential Air Service initiative, which is part of the reason for the recent congressional impasse over a bill to keep the Federal Aviation Administration operating.
August 7, 2011
Addressing traffic congestion (in any city)
Everyone knows that gridlock leads to wasted time and increased stress, but the effects of degraded mobility are worse than most people realize. Traffic congestion deprives job-seekers of opportunities, robs businesses of customers, and hastens the exodus of residents from the central city to the suburbs.
And although mounting gridlock may seem like the unavoidable result of increased population and strained budgets, the experience of nations from France to Australia proves otherwise. Reason Foundation draws on what’s worked worldwide and recommends a three-part plan:
1. Expand roads with underground tunnels and elevated structures.
2. Use pricing to keep traffic flowing.
3. Pay for new projects with private-sector financing instead of taxes.That plan can help Chicago or any other city bust congestion and boost economic growth.
Comments Off
July 21, 2011
Perhaps I’ll skip the tour of China after all
I’ve always been a fussy eater, so David Sedaris’s account of a few meals during his visit to China have probably deterred me for good:
Most restaurants had quit serving lunch, so we stopped at what’s called a Farming Family Happiness. This is a farmhouse where, if they’re in the mood, the people who live there will cook and serve you a meal.
One of the members of our party was a native of Chengdu, and of the five Americans, everyone but Hugh and I spoke Mandarin. Thus we hung back as they negotiated with the farm wife, who was square-faced and pretty and wore her hair cut into bangs. We ate in what was normally the mah jong parlour, a large room overlooking the family’s tea field. Against one wall were two televisions, each tuned to a different channel and loudly playing to no one. On the other wall was a sanitation grade — C — and the service grade, which was a smiley face with the smile turned upside down.
As far as I know there wasn’t a menu. Rather, the family worked at their convenience, with whatever was handy or in season. There was a rooster parading around the backyard and then there just wasn’t. After the cook had slit its throat, he used it as the base for five separate dishes, one of which was a dreary soup with two feet, like inverted salad tongs, sticking out of it. Nothing else was nearly as recognisable.
Of course, after visiting Japan with their renowned degree of cleanliness, his arrival set the tone rather too well:
This was what I had grown accustomed to when we flew from Narita to Beijing International, where the first thing one notices is what sounds like a milk steamer, the sort a cafe uses when making lattes and cappuccinos. “That’s odd,” you think. “There’s a coffee bar on the elevator to the parking deck?” What you’re hearing, that incessant guttural hiss, is the sound of one person, and then another, dredging up phlegm, seemingly from the depths of his or her soul. At first you look over, wondering, “Where are you going to put that?” A better question, you soon realise, is, “Where aren’t you going to put it?”
I saw wads of phlegm glistening like freshly shucked oysters on staircases and escalators. I saw them frozen into slicks on the sidewalk and oozing down the sides of walls. It often seemed that if people weren’t spitting, they were coughing without covering their mouths, or shooting wads of snot out of their noses. This was done by plugging one nostril and using the other as a blowhole. “We Chinese think it’s best just to get it out,” a woman told me over dinner one night.
And that’s without quoting any of the learned discussion of bodily wastes . . .
Comments Off
July 1, 2011
Guardian contributer learns not to confuse “sociopathy” with “social network”
Kia Abdullah will think twice before letting her inner sociopath out on Twitter in future:
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, three young British men were killed in a bus crash in Thailand, just days after starting their gap year travels. A deeply tragic case — and one that will have left many British parents sick with worry. Annually about 100,000 young Brits take gap years.
But here’s a Twitter reaction from Kia Abdullah, a Guardian contributor:
Even if you think this sort of thing, sending it out immediately over Facebook or Twitter is just asking for a landslide of public abuse to land on your head. People who work in media have the least excuse for this kind of absent-minded faux pas, as they often pounce on celebrity or politician errors of exactly this sort.
Comments Off
June 16, 2011
Horwitz: Yes, it is a police state
It’s been a long time since 9/11, and the biggest losses have been in civil liberties:
As regular readers know, I’m not one for hyperbole, so perhaps some are thinking that my title is ironic. Nope, I mean it. An accumulation of events in recent months leads me to no other conclusion than that we are in fact living in a police state in the good old US of A.
The list of reasons is fairly long, but we can certainly start with our favorite gropers at the TSA. In my ideal world, airline safety would be the responsibility of those with the most directly to lose financially from doing it poorly: the airlines and the airports. But even in a world where government has taken on that responsibility, we should be protected by the Fourth Amendment against “unreasonable” searches. It’s one thing to walk through the standard metal detector, which seems reasonable, but when we are expected to pose virtually nude in a submissive position for government agents, and when refusing to do so earns you a feel-up that would count as sexual battery in most states, that is something else entirely.
If I had told you 20 years ago that in 2011 this is what would happen every day to thousands of travelers — including toddlers and the handicapped — at U.S. airports, you would not have believed me. And on top of everything else, it doesn’t work! It’s mere “security theatre.” When residents of the United States have a legitimate fear of being sexually abused by agents of the State when engaging in peaceful air travel, we live in a police state.
Comments Off
June 5, 2011
Brendan O’Neill goes whale watching
Where our hero gets a thrilling ride he didn’t expect, but finally gets a bit of revenge:
It’s the hippyish family of three from Norfolk that I feel sorry for. There they were at the Old Harbour in Reykjavik, their multicoloured fleeces zipped up to the chin to protect them from a light but Arctic breeze, talking gaily about going to ‘meet the whales’. I’m sure one of them had even used the word ‘commune’, as a verb, it being fashionable now to believe that humans can make a spiritual, spine-tingling connection with whales and dolphins.
Yet little did this excitable unit know that within the hour they’d be clinging to any bit of the boat’s infrastructure they could find, as we got tossed around by a pissed-off Poseidon, minke whales mocking us with their mighty tails for daring to enter into their cruel and alien world.
Admittedly it was our own fault. The woman at the whale-watching office at the harbour had warned us that the weather was unpredictable. ‘We might not go out today,’ she said, in that wonderfully weird accent that Icelandic people speak English in: part-Viking, part-Scouse. ‘It’s looking a bit patchy,’ she explained.
Now, in a country famous for its angry climate, for its spewing geysers, for having the word ‘Ice’ in its name, where tourists can buy T-shirts that say ‘Lost in Iceland’ on the front and ‘Is anybody out there?’ on the back, and where they have actually made a horror film called Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, you might think that we would have taken more seriously this native harbour woman’s warning of ‘patchiness’ at sea. But no. So determined were we to see the whales that, in a mish-mash of European accents, we all said: ‘Let’s go! We don’t mind if it’s a little rough.’ They would make for brilliant famous last words.
Comments Off
April 18, 2011
Oh, stop worrying: everything is going according to the plan!
Julian Sanchez notes a fascinating parallel:
Batman’s archnemesis the Joker — played memorably by Heath Ledger in 2008′s blockbuster The Dark Knight — might seem like an improbable font of political wisdom, but it’s lately occurred to me that one of his more memorable lines from the film is surprisingly relevant to our national security policy:
You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.”
There are, one hopes, limits. The latest in a string of videos from airport security to provoke online outrage shows a six-year-old girl being subjected to an invasive Transportation Security Administration patdown — including an agent feeling around in the waistband of the girl’s pants. I’m somewhat reassured that people don’t appear to be greatly mollified by TSA’s response:
A video taken of one of our officers patting down a six year-old has attracted quite a bit of attention. Some folks are asking if the proper procedures were followed. Yes. TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures.
While I suppose it would be disturbing if individual agents were just improvising groping protocol on the fly (so to speak), the response suggests that TSA thinks our concerns should be assuaged once we’ve been reassured that everything is being done by the book — even if the book is horrifying. But in a sense, that’s the underlying idea behind all security theater: Show people that there’s a Plan, that procedures are in place, whether or not there’s any good evidence that the Plan actually makes us safer.
April 7, 2011
Wil Wheaton gets the “special” treatment from the TSA
The TSA just got another rave review from a traveller who got the full treatment and didn’t like it:
Yesterday, I was touched — in my opinion, inappropriately — by a TSA agent at LAX.
I’m not going to talk about it in detail until I can speak with an attorney, but I’ve spent much of the last 24 hours replaying it over and over in my mind, and though some of the initial outrage has faded, I still feel sick and angry when I think about it.
What I want to say today is this: I believe that the choice we are currently given by the American government when we need to fly is morally wrong, unconstitutional, and does nothing to enhance passenger safety.
I further believe that when I choose to fly, I should not be forced to choose between submitting myself to a virtually-nude scan (and exposing myself to uncertain health risks due to radiation exposure), or enduring an aggressive, invasive patdown where a stranger puts his hands in my pants, and makes any contact at all with my genitals.
When I left the security screening yesterday, I didn’t feel safe. I felt violated, humiliated, assaulted, and angry. I felt like I never wanted to fly again. I was so furious and upset, my hands shook for quite some time after the ordeal was over. I felt sick to my stomach for hours.
This is wrong. Nobody should have to feel this way, just so we can get on an airplane. We have fundamental human and constitutional rights in America, and among those rights is a reasonable expectation of personal privacy, and freedom from unreasonable searches. I can not believe that the TSA and its supporters believe that what they are doing is reasonable and appropriate. Nobody should have to choose between a virtually-nude body scan or an aggressive, invasive patdown where a stranger puts his or her hands inside your pants and makes any contact at all with your genitals or breasts as a condition of flying.
H/T to occasional commenter “Da Wife” for the link.
Comments Off
April 5, 2011
China’s High Speed Railways: not for the masses
Reports of corruption among top officials and soaring costs for China’s HSR network:
. . . question-marks have been raised over these plans after the sacking in February of Liu Zhijun, the minister responsible for building the high-speed network. He was accused of skimming off as much as 1 billion yuan ($152m) in bribes and of keeping as many as 18 mistresses. Zhang Shuguang, another top official in the railways ministry, was later dismissed for corruption. Separately, on March 23rd, state auditors reported that $28m had been embezzled from the 1,300km high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai, the highest-profile of China’s many rail projects.
Public support for high-speed trains is muted. The trains may reach 350km per hour but fares are proportionately eye-watering. That is all right for well-heeled travellers, happy to have an alternative to flying. But tens of millions of poor migrants who work far afield and flock home for the Chinese new year are being priced out the rail market and have to go by bus (the number of bus journeys is soaring).
The sacking of top officials may be the result merely of one of China’s periodic anti-corruption campaigns. Or it may be the upshot of a high-level factional or personal battle, in which corruption charges are often a favourite weapon. If so, the dismissals would not necessarily affect railway development.
Comments Off
March 26, 2011
March 17, 2011
Steam narrowboat
H/T to Eric Kirkland, who noted:
Please note the compulsory requisites for ‘proper’ canal cruising:
1) The flat cap
2) The grey beard
3) The mucky overalls
4) Bloomin’ great boots
Prior to the current ‘Elf and Safety regime there would also be
5) Roll ups permanently attached to the lower lip or a blazing briar full of Ogdens’ Flake
Comments Off
February 22, 2011
A tale for our times
Jon, my former virtual landlord, sent along this link:
A modern Romance novel
He grasped me firmly but gently just above my elbow and guided me into a room, his room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in a low, reassuring voice close to my ear. “Just relax.”
Read the whole thing.
Comments Off
February 16, 2011
Damned good reasons for Canadians to fly from US airports instead of Canadian airports
An article at the National Post talks about the rising number of Canadians who drive to US airports. After a recent experiment, I can understand why.
Last weekend, I had a notion to go to Boston for the coming long weekend. I checked the Porter Airlines website. Multiple flights from Toronto Island airport to Boston, great! So I started the booking process. Two people, flying from YTZ to BOS, return trip . . . how freaking much????
Because I wasn’t booking more than two weeks in advance, the flights were going to cost $800+. That’d be bad enough, but that’s per person. One way. But the return flight was cheaper: a doddle at “only” about $690. So about $3,000 not counting taxes, fees, and surcharges.
American Airlines, if I booked right now could get us to Boston from Buffalo for $246 each. Return flight at the same price, or cheaper ($181 each) if we used JetBlue.
So, for the added hassle of driving to Buffalo (and the border crossing, of course), I’d save nearly $2,000 on this little jaunt. If that’s at all representative, then it’s amazing that Canadian airlines are able to hang on to as much of the business as they currently do.
February 5, 2011
Unlike most media pundits, he’s actually been to Egypt
I’m referring to Victor, who was in Egypt just under two years ago, and recounts some of his experiences then:
This is where all my feelings for Egypt go downhill. We visit a Mosque first thing, we arrive between prayer, but honestly, you wouldn’t know it. We’re trying to move with the crowd, when suddenly a woman steps between my girlfriend and I (not current girlfriend), and smacks her before running off. Both a bit disturbed by this, we talk to our tour guide, who acts awkwardly, and apologizes to us. Once in the mosque, we are sort of at a loss for what to do with ourselves. It’s a beautiful place, but positively hostile; we’re glared at everywhere we go.
Leaving the Mosque, we head to the Pyramids, those claustrophobic (Me!) get to wait outside while everyone else goes in. Apparently it was dark, hot, smelly, and genuinely unenjoyable, so I’m just as glad I saw from the outside. Crossing a bit of a sand plane between the Pyramids and the Sphinx, however, a friend of mine was accosted by a man with a camel. He made the mistake of shaking this guy’s hand, and was suddenly wisked onto the camel, and they began to ride off. My friend jumped down and ran back after about 50 feet, but yeah, not great. Sphinx was sketchy as all hell, people constantly eyeing us, watching where we moved, etc. One small boy, egged on by an older man, followed closely behind us, and made several attempts to get into people’s pockets. We were all so flustered, I’m not sure anyone enjoyed the Sphinx.
After the Sphinx, we were moved to another location, where we were to have our camel rides. Cool, not a lot can go wrong on a camel ride that was arranged and paid for, right? The first group went out and came back without a hitch, so my group boarded, and our camels began their galumphing walk around the block. [. . .] two girls from the tour group are missing, and they went out on the same Camel ride that I did. [. . .] I witness some boys trying to torture a dog while sitting on the bus, and want to go smack them about. Then a police officer does my wishes for me himself, waving his bully club at them and letting the dog down. The girls appear around a corner, scrambling back on foot, relating that their camel drivers dropped back from the rest of the group and took a different rout from the rest, and when they got too far, the two of them jumped down and hauled back.
[. . .]
The author of the book talks about how resourceful and friendly the Egyptians are, and how nicely they treat foreigners, I saw none of that, to be honest, more a willingness to take advantage, or play on Westerner’s emotions. I won’t go back to Egypt, it was my worst travelling experience.
The joys of tourism . . .
Comments Off
