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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/1/2009 8:36:19 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1573718

Sigh. Will MM be mad at Obama if this isn't what he does with his new auto company?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/1/2009 10:34:16 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573718

"After all, who would want to take a 17 hour bullet train ride from NY to LA?" This seems slow compared to flying. But it's blazingly fast compared to driving. With some decent seats, a bar and restaurant car, a scenic route, and it could easily be a winner. I HATE to fly now. I'd be very attracted to a train like the above.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/1/2009 10:40:17 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1573718

>> After all, who would want to take a 17 hour bullet train ride from NY to LA? I agree. NY to LA would never be a prime route. The sweet spot in trains is shorter routes -- like Dallas/Houston/San Antonio/Austin, or LA to SFO, LA to Vegas, St. Louis to Chicago, etc. If you're going coast-to-coast, nobody's going to get on a freaking train. It would go broke instantly.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/2/2009 7:56:39 AM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1573718

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job... gatewaypundit.blogspot.com Moore thinks GM caused misery? Divorce? Alcoholism and drug addiction? Gee, I'll bet it made him fat too. What GM really did to Moore's hometown is give them good jobs and too generous retirement benefits for a long time.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/2/2009 11:34:50 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573718

He starts off well, especially given that his hometown is Flint, MI, but he quickly goes off the deep end after that. They laughed at Edison when he said he could provide light without using gas or kerosene. After all, who would want to take a 17 hour bullet train ride from NY to LA? Michael Moore thinks you do, and he wants Government Motors to get us there. I would. I hate flying. And in a few years, that 17 hour trip will be closer to 10 hours. Mag lev trains go in excess of 300 mph.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (484996)	6/2/2009 8:35:46 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573718

High Speed Rail Rarely Turns A Profit Only two high speed rail routes in the whole world turn a profit. Parenthetically, the higher the speed the lower the energy efficiency. Such benefits, however, come with a huge price tag. By 2020, Spain plans to spend close to 100 billion euros on infrastructure and billions more on trains. That figure could give pause to places like California, a potential high-speed corridor whose area and population are about four-fifths the size of Spain’s. “High-speed rail is good for society and it’s good for the environment, but it’s not a profitable business,” said Mr. Barrón of the International Union of Railways. He reckons that only two routes in the world — between Tokyo and Osaka, and between Paris and Lyon, France — have broken even. I'd like to know how much energy each of the high speed rail lines use per passenger mile as compared to airplanes traveling those same distances. The biggest benefit I can see for high speed rail: For lines that are electrified they avoid the need to use liquid fossil fuels. Once we hit Peak Oil (and maybe we already have) the ability to move around on electric power will become a big advantage. We can generate electricity from many energy forms. We will have plenty of electricity post-peak. That 100 billion euros for Spanish trains works out to about 2174 euros per person or about 200 euros per year per person. Spain's 91/km² population density is almost identical to California's 90.5/km² population density. But California's growing more rapidly. If you really want fuel efficiency electric bicycles beat any train or car or bus or airplane. You will see at that link that a 747 is more fuel efficient than an Amtrak train too. Update: Contrary to popular impressions mass transit plays a small role in moving people around Europe. See this page at Figure 1: Motorised Travel (passenger-kms per capita per annum) in 2003 where it compares many European countries for public transport use. Then scroll down in that same document and look at percentage contributions to moving people around in Europe in "Figure 3: Overall mode share of distance travelled (%) in 2003". After all the mass transit subsidies and high taxes on gasoline well over 80% of passenger miles traveled on the ground in Europe still are done by car. The convenience of cars wins out. By Randall Parker futurepundit.com I'm not surprised by this.