Remembering the Note

There were a lot of things I could have done after reading the note. But I followed the instructions perfectly. The gully was about three miles from my house directly west on Highway 72, past the old quarry. But I couldn’t be followed so I headed east. I was going to take some strange turns to see who would follow. I liked to think of myself as a

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Congressman: White House LGBT Announcements Imminent

California representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview Thursday that the White House would be presenting new information “I think the White House is preparing to make an announcement on a number of issues,” he said, declining to go into detail.

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NOLA Post Katrina in Photos: Slowly Coming Back to Life.

Today, Mayor Nagin stated that life in New-Orleans was back to normal. Well, the Big Easy still has some way to go even for a partial recovery. This is a visual testimony of the recovery process with the men & women trying to make it happen....

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Image in a 140 character Twitter - It's possible!

Preliminary result of a little competition with the goal to write an image encoder/decoder that allows to send an image in a tweet. The image on the left is what one can currently manage to send in 140 characters via twitter.

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Boating Stimulated

Great Lakes Boating Federation hails the grants recently awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program. This is a small step in the right direction, but there is a lot to be done.

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New high-speed Canadian trains touted to match U.S. vision

A multibillion-dollar Canadian high-speed rail project could inject new life into the domestic steel industry and allow the country to keep pace with a "visionary" plan launched last month by U.S. President Barack Obama, railway industry and public transit advocates said on Tuesday.

"Obviously, President Obama has made it a priority and so we're certainly at risk of losing ground to them if we don't take a good hard look ourselves and make some decisions over the next few years," Cliff Mackay, president and chief executive officer of the Railway Association of Canada, said in an interview.

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Los Angeles " Lost & Found " in Photographs.

All American cities change at a much faster pace than European cities in the architecture, the advertising and even the people in what seems to be a constant flux of visual novelties and oddities. This is especially the case for the ever morphing Los Angeles......

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FictionMarket.org ~ Catfish Boys by Jackie Corley from 34thP

“Catfish Boys” by Jackie Corley from 34thParallel is a plain spoken, literary tale set in youthful years. The story is told in first person, with almost no dialogue. The narrator starts off describing the boys of this summer, with their young faces and ways. Next comes a slew of descriptions of the life experienced during those times for this narra

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Hold Torturors Accountable

Describes the hypocracy of sheltering Torturors by not releasing the photos.

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Getting Started with Ruby on Rails: Installation

This article will guide you through the process of installing Ruby on Rails, and any other software that is required to begin using it.This is the first of two articles, Part 1 will show you how to install Ruby on Rails (on Windows) and Part 2 will show you how to create a basic blog.

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Indecency Explained [PIC]

...

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Linux GP2X Wiz portable game system available

"That's right mobile gaming fanatics. GamePark's new GP2X Wiz portable game system is now available. The new device sports a 533Mhz 3D accelerator plus flash engine, 1 gigabyte flash memory, SD card support, and will run you about $180"

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Woman by the Water

The morning before the hurricane I cheated on my husband for the third time.I suppose it had been a mistake for us to move here. “But, Dosy, sweetheart, I thought you loved the ocean!” my husband Jackson had spluttered. “You always said it was your favorite place growing up.” Actually, I had said that exactly once, on our honeymoon in Barbados

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On the Fence

He stood before the house with his arms slung over the white fence, beginning to tingle from pinched nerves and blood vessels. In the upstairs window, a woman in a blue-silk night gown sat before a row of bright lights putting on make-up. Her blonde hair was held back from her face with some invisible band. She reminded him of his ex-wife.

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City of New Orleans Express

City of New Orleans Express
By Justin Hoffman

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail...
Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields.
Passin’ trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles.
- Steve Goodman

Steve Goodman wrote the song “City of New Orleans” in 1972 about a train route, running from Chicago to New Orleans. It was once operated by Illinois Central and is currently ran by Amtrak. At the time of the switch, all passenger rail companies were being converted into Amtrak by the United States government, due to the poor financial situations of passenger rail companies. This failure by the country to uphold its once expansive system, he (Goodman), saw correctly as its demise. Since its inception, Amtrak has struggled to survive, while passengers are forced to ride in aging cars on rusting tracks. Each of the following chapter is headed by a quote from Goodman’s song.

“Don’t you know my I’m your native son.”

Trains are what glued this country, and it’s people, together long before any other means of travel. Sure, horses came first, but they were much too slow to cover hundreds, of even thousands, of miles in a reasonable amount of time. Since 1869 there has been a transcontinental rail line, running from the West Coast to the East. Railroads were used to build cities and allow people to travel between them. It was the best form of travel for over 100 years, before the highway system began to take shape and before there were passenger airlines.

The system peaked in 1920 and then steadily declined. In 1971, the railroads were combined to form Amtrak with the idea of saving passenger rail, and the entire system was severely shrunk in an effort to save money. Ever since, Amtrak has been struggling to survive. serving 23.5 million passengers a year, operating up to 265 trains per day over some 23,000 miles of track in more than 500 cities and town in all but four states (Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wyoming).” (Hansen)

The federal government has only spent “$23.6 billion from 1971 to 2001” on Amtrak, while they have spent “$404.5 billion on highways” and “$166 billion on air travel” in the same amount of time (Hansen 4). There is a clear separation in the amount of money spent on these three types of travel, with roads far ahead of planes and even farther ahead of trains. These figures prove that the government believes no one cares about trains, and no on wants to use them for transportation.

One possible reason for some of the decline in passenger rail travel is the lack of opportunity to use it. There is not enough money to give possible riders many choices for travel times. Rather than finding five or six times during a day, as would with Greyhound o flying, often there is only one departure per day with Amtrak. This forces potential passengers to use their own cars or to fly; even a single airline has many more departure times. But some have not forgotten the pleasure of trains, and you’ll find them inside Union Station in Chicago.

Just west of the Chicago River, in th heart of downtown, between Jackson Boulevard and Adams Street, is Union Station. It is the second Union Station, a terminal where tracks and facilities are used by more than one rail company, built in Chicago and opened in 1925 (“Union Station”). Built during the peak of passenger rail travel in the United States, this station can handle many more people than it serves today. “During World War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily,” and “as of 2004, approximately 50,000 people use the station on a daily basis” (“Union Station”). The majority of today’s passengers are Metra rides, or commuters, not Amtrak travelers.

Inside, one will find the people who have not forgotten trains. They are just like me, finding some enjoyment and purpose to the first real passenger travel service. Downstairs is where I will find myself. It is the place where we all wait; I say “we,” because I am waiting too, though not for a train. I am part of the group, no longer outside looking in. I am inside looking out, even looking across. There are many of us, and we have been forgotten, as our trains have been, only they do not know it yet. I observed these people for several months, speaking to some of them, before researching - only to draw the conclusion that these people cannot be forgotten. They are carrying the rest, making many lives easier, all because they ride trains.

To find these people, to meet them, and to see they are the same as you; you must follow me on into the station and on a fast journey to New Orleans on the new City of New Orleans Express. Are you ready to see how impressive train travel could be? Are you ready to join the club that will make it happen?

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The Catch

Brad rushed to the edge of the warning track, looked up to the jumbotron, took a step, and lept. The flyball he tracked was decending quickly from the lights of the dome. He timed the leap well, reached with his glove over the fence. The ball landed with a swap into the webbing of his mitt.

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City of New Orleans Express pt. 2

...previous

"I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.”

On any given day go with the rush of people into Union Station on Canal Street. Follow them through the folding automatic doors, down the escalator, and into the Amtrak section. Once inside, there is a desk for passengers to acquire helpful information, and there are several choices of direction - from left to right are four doors. Leftmost, is the doorway to gate “A” and “B.” Here one boards northbound trains, such as the Hiawatha (service to Milwaukee). Next is a door to the business class lounge. Then, there are the much needed restrooms. Last, and to the right, is the doorway to gate “C” through “F.” This is boarding for the southbound trains, including the City of New Orleans and its express - which we will board after meeting some of the people.

We go right, into the largest waiting room. It is about 80 feet across and 50 feet deep. There are many rows of comfortable, beige chairs. Several structural support columns stand as if the strongest of trees in a forest of people. The walls are a shade of tan, the carpet is green, and the ceiling is a cream color. The lights are kept low, but not dim, for a relaxing atmosphere - it is about comfort. Once in the room, we find rentable lockers covering the left wall, vending machines watching from the back corner, brochure racks scattering information, and luggage cart waiting to be rented. The gates are openings (doorways with no doors) in the far wall that lead to another, smaller waiting room very similar to this one. Next to each doorway is a window, and on each ledge is a planter with some kind of ivy. Monitors, hanging from the wall above the window holes, display the arrivals and departures of trains. The other waiting space is used for the pre-checked passengers, and as a way to keep trains on schedule. Beyond, are the platforms and tracks, where we and others will board our train.

My favorite place to sit is on the right side, near a wall of curtained glass windows, which look upon a hallway. The hallway leads from the Metra platforms, next to the Amtrak platforms, to the escalators up to Canal Street, where we entered. From here, I can see the entire room, which is why I like it. From outside, sounding distant, there are rumbles of the trains’ diesel engines waiting, wanting to pull the cars, and wishing to never stop. Here and there, crackles come from workers’ radios, and horns warn people to move for luggage carts. Occasionally, there are announcements from the overhead intercom about security or boarding and arriving trains. All these sounds mix with he mass of people talking and laughing. Every once in a while, a burst of baby cries - though never lasting for long - cuts the air.

The waiting room is full of people. There is every kind of person imaginable. I see grandparents, children, rich, poor, business people, the unemployed, vacationers, Amish, and commuters. All of them finding the train useful and practical. The collection of people on the train is as diverse as any major city. But each person I spoke with was pleasant and kind.

One woman is taking her three children to visit their grandmother. She is dressed in a red sweat suit, sitting with a baby in her lap while the other two kids run to and fro. I ask her why she chooses to ride the train.

“I ride because it’s the best choice we have. It’s nice. We don’t have a lot of money, so we can’t have a car... And planes are expensive. The bus is cheap but it’s slower and there’s less room,” she answers.

People are nearby are a little annoyed at her lack of control over her children. She feels this and begins to yell at the kids, which does not please the crowd of observers any more. She seems like a caring mother with more than she can handle, but with her heart in the right place.

Two rows away is an elderly man standing, his arms waving and flailing. He has a large grin on his face, as the lights twinkle reflections off his balding head. His pants are brown and his sweater is deep, soft blue. He is entertaining several other elderly people with jokes and stories. Everyone has a story to share on a journey by train.

I feel comfortable here. Don’t you? Maybe it’s because I’ve been on train journeys before. When I was fifteen, my parents took me on a vacation by train. We traveled from Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon on the train. Last year, I took an extensive trip with my girlfriend to the East Coast. We left Chicago for Washington, D.C., then went to Boston, and on to New York City. Lastly, we went to Toronto before returning to Chicago. This trip was much more affordable by train than it would have been by plane. It was also much easier than driving all those miles in a cramped vehicle. I found both vacation enjoyable, partly because of the train ride.

One of the things that adds to the value of a trip, is the freedom. As a passenger you have plenty of space to move about. There is a dining car for full meals and a snack car for light foods. Here you can also find space to hang out and play board or card games. There is another car called the observation car, where you can watch movies or the scenery as it passes by. The people are friendly and, as I’ve said, enjoy sharing stories. Sure, the trip takes longer than by plane, but you get to see and experience so much more.

That’s only advantage planes have - they are faster. So, you might ask, “Why save trains? They are so slow, five hundred miles a day is not very fast.” Fortunately, this is no longer the case as trains are faster now (at least in other parts of the world). The slow ones average 50 miles-per-hour. The train, City of New Orleans for example, now covers its 900-mile trek in less than 20 hours. That is a long drive by car, and few of your would get there any sooner than the train, unless you speed and never stop. But all of Amtrak’s trains, except the Acela Express, are extremely slow compared to the capability of trains today. Even the Acela is far from being a speed daemon, reaching a top speed of 150 miles-per-hour and cruising at 125 miles-per-hour. This is quite impressive considering it is riding on a “100-year-old infrastructure” (Tindall 29). But it is far from the fastest trains in the world.

China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Russia, and more will all have trains rushing at speeds of 180 miles-per-hour. France and Germany have begun work to build a 210-miles-per-hour system linking their countries. These trains have comforts airplanes do not even come close to: wi-fi [wireless Internet], power outlets for each seat, and cell phone repeaters [for better signals], just to name a few. (Tagliabue)

If you join our group, this is, if you decide you enjoy trains too, hop on with us and enjoy the ride. If you are still undecided, come so that you can see how wonderful it is. This is a route of the future; a place where fast trains have become a reality. This is the future where the people have been heard, and the government has supported trains. I will show you around the comforts.

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City of New Orleans Express pt. 3

previous...

"I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans.”

We walk through the gate, out onto the platform. We do not check our bags; we are not searched. There is plenty of room for all your things; only check what you want to. The platform is inside a tunnel under the towers and streets of downtown Chicago. Overhead, power cables hang from the concrete ceiling over the train, which is sleek and fresh though it looks similar to the older models. The seats are spacious and comfortable, twice the size of airline seats. You can use your cell phone, plug in your laptop, and connect to the Internet without worrying about takeoffs or landings. The train is filling and preparing to make its daily round trip journey. This is the newly created non-stop trip from Chicago to New Orleans, which Amtrak has named the City of New Orleans Express.

The train begins to pull from the station, gathering speed. Before it leaves the city limits it is traveling at 180 miles-per-hour. Everything outside the window is a blur - houses, cars, tress, all blend into one streak of colors. It is hard to watch anything near, so you focus on the distant images. Hills and forests and fields float far away, near the unchanging clouds. A rhythm from beneath the wheels can still be felt, as in the former train models, but the timing is much faster. The click-clack is gone; now there is a just a solid thump, similar to a car’s tires traveling on an uneven concrete freeway.

The diversity of the place shows itself on the train also. Walking by is a large, middle-aged man wearing a leather vest, without a shirt underneath. Tattoos are displayed up and down his bare arms. His hair is long and grey, pulled back into a ponytail. We get up to see what movie is playing and to get something to eat from the snack car. Here, we meet a young man with a guitar. He does not carry it in a case, which I had to ask about. He replied, “This is the one my father bought. My baby is at home, safe.” He is visiting his parent. His father sent him to an expensive school but he does not wish to attend, so he spends his time playing guitar. These are also the people of the train; do not forget them.

The 900 miles between the two cities can be covered in just five hours with no stops. All the way from Chicago to New Orleans, in just twice the time that it would take to flying in a plane (if you do not count the security checks and travel between the airport and downtown).

The price tag would have to be enormous to build such a system. “It took $3.8 billion to electrify and modernize much of the Northeast [Washington, D.C. to Boston, MA] corridor’s infrastructure. [Not including] an $850 million loan for [the] Acela trains” (Tindall 30). That work was so trains could go 125 miles-per-hour over roughly 440 miles. So, the tag would be far greater to upgrade over 900 miles of track to 180 miles-per-hour train travel. “In South Korea, Alstrom... is supplying 185-miles-per-hour trains for a five-year, $17 billion project that has connected Pusan and Seoul” (Tagliabue 2). Those cities are only 204 miles apart. Thus, once can only speculate how much it would cost to build or upgrade the present system for speeds of this kind from the Midwest to the Delta.

But this wonderful dream is unlikely to come true. So far the United States Government has spent very little on Amtrak throughout its history. There is no indication this trend will change. Amtrak is clearly underfunded, as they are having trouble keeping the system up to date.

“Good Night America how are you?”

Trains pollute almost six times less than planes, and over three times less than automobiles per person (Tindall 33). They also take up far less space than highways. “A single railroad track can carry as many people as a 10-lane highway” (Hansen 18). “A recent California Department of Transportation study found that a statewide HSR [high-speed rail] network would have saved 7.3 million gallons of gasoline - the equivalent of taking 7,000 sport-utility vehicles or 12,000 cars of the road for a year” (Hansen 9).

The evidence is clear. Trains are a very beneficial mode of transportation. With an equal share of help from the US Government, Amtrak could be running high-speed trains on a futuristic rail system. I have shown there are many people who do want to use trains, and there are many of those who would surely enjoy a faster trip. Those people are like you and me; we are those people.

Trains will help reduce pollution and improve travel times for those who do need to use the roadways. It is our duty to return trains to their former glory. It can be done. Instead of jumping in your car, or catching a plane, next time you wish to take a trip, consider Amtrak. You may find it to be cheaper, and you will surely find it more enjoyable. All those already here will surely welcome you.

And the steel rails still ain’t heard the news.
The conductor sings his song again,
The passengers will please refrain
This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues.
- Steve Goodman

Works Cited

Goodman, Steve. “City of New Orleans.” Steve Goodman. Buddah, 1972.

Hansen, Brian. “Future of Amtrak.” The CQ Researcher 18 Oct. 2002.

Tagliabue, John. “Overseas, the Trains and the Market for Them Accelerate.” The New York Times 30 Dec. 2005. C1.

Tindall, Blair. “Trains, Planes, and Pains: What’s the Best Way to Get from Point A to Point B? Amtrak’s High-Speed Rail Takes on the Airlines.” Sierra Nov.-Dec. 2003. 28-33.

“Union Station (Chicago).” 16 Feb. 2006. 14 Apr. 2006
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Chicago)

The Hardest Part by Carol Vlassoff

I strip off my clothes, damp from the four hour ride from San José, and plunge into the cool water. True to its name - an infinity pool - the turquoise water seems to flow seamlessly into the sky and sea beyond. The long coastline stretches out before me, the waves a brilliant white against the deep blue of the sea and the lavender hills behind. B

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