Archive for August, 2008
All aboard! Amtrak ridership in GR way up
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The high cost of gas is pushing many travelers between Michigan and Chicago to passenger trains.
The Detroit News reports that the numbers of riders on several Amtrak train routes had risen between October and July.
Amtrak officials tell the newspaper that the number of people riding Pontiac-Detroit-Ann Arbor-Jackson-Chicago lines was up 5.9 percent over that period. The Port Huron-East Lansing-Chicago line has seen a 6.5 percent jump in riders, while the Grand Rapids-St. Joseph-Chicago line was up 7.2 percent.
Now, if Murdoc is running a few minutes late for work in the morning, he sees the Grand Rapids-St. Joe-Chicago train. As he runs late at least once a week (slacker) he often waI’ve been watching to see it the passenger load is up.
It might be up 7.2 percent like the article says, but it’s probably something like up to 32 passengers per day from 30. Seriously. The train usually has three cars (and often a second engine) and each car usually appears to be nearly totally empty. Now, Murdoc could be wrong and the actual numbers may be closer to up to 64 passengers per day from 60, but I’d be surprised.
Another thing to consider is that it’s likely more people get on the train for Chicago at St. Joseph than get off at St. Joseph from Grand Rapids, so maybe the number of passengers riding into the Windy City is 100 or more. Again, I’m completely guessing based off of what I see where the tracks cross my road to work, so maybe I’m way off base.
Are Amtrak ridership numbers publicly available?
The GR to Chicago ride is $47 and takes 3:55. By road, this is a 177 mile trip and Google Maps says it should take 2:55. At $4 a gallon, that works out to about $23 in gas, but there’s no way you make that trip in three hours on the highway, at least not at that time of day.
Regardless, I’d be shocked if the amount of energy it takes to move an engine and three cars (plus quite often a second engine) to Chicago is in any way good for anyone.
UPDATE: Missed this bit:
The increases would have been greater if tickets, especially for weekend trips, were not selling out.
Again, I’m sure that all three cars look to be 90% empty during the week. Something isn’t making sense.
Mexican soldiers enter state, hold border agent at gunpoint
Four Mexican army soldiers entered southern Arizona and pointed their rifles at a U.S. Border Patrol agent early this week, the Border Patrol said.
The incident Sunday was the Mexican military’s 43rd incursion across the U.S. border since October, the agency said. However, it was unusual because firearms were involved. The Border Patrol and the Mexican government are investigating, Border Patrol spokesman Mike Scioli said.
Murdoc would like to be very clear about this. Sometimes I use snarkiness and sarcasm here, but this is straight-up exactly what I mean:
US military force should have been used against these four Mexican soldiers. They should all have been killed as quickly and violently as possible. Aircraft should have been used to kill and destroy any supporting Mexican forces on the Mexican side of the border. Any military and/or police forces should have been assumed to be “supporting.”
I would prefer that our aircraft stayed on our side of the border and destroyed their targets from our airspace, but I’m not terribly picky about that, particularly considering it would have been in response to an armed military incursion.
Again, I want to reiterate that this is not sarcasm. If our national policy is not to immediately destroy foreign military forces of any kind here without invitation, we are in trouble.
Obviously, we are in trouble.
Murdoc continues to be very busy, but the developments in Georgia are quite troubling.
The Georgians claim to have shot down four Russian planes and the Russians, who have been building up troop strength for a while, are apparently pouring in.
As much as Murdoc would love to knee-jerk blame the Rooskies for everything, the border areas of the former USSR are all basically a mess. And local disputes can go regional in a day and regional disputes can go continental in a week.
Bram tips Murdoc off to this bad news: Georgia Pulls Out Troops from Iraq amid ‘Russian Aggression’
President Saakashvili said Georgia was pulling out its troops from Iraq amid, what he called, an open military aggression by Russia in South Ossetia.
“One brigade of the Georgian armed forces is in Iraq and we are calling its back tomorrow,” Saakashvili said in a live interview with CNN on August 8.
And get this from the same article:
When asked by an anchor what would he ask to President Bush to do for Georgia, Saakashvili responded, that Georgia now was in the same situation as Finland was in 1939 when the Soviet Union attacked it.
It’s hard to know whether that means he wants help like Finland wanted in 1939 or if he means that Georgian troops are going to stand strong against the Russians like the Finns did in 1939. Probably both.
Not a lot of time, but there’s a good post up at Instapundit on Obama’s call for 1,000,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015.
FWIW, I support the plug-in hybrid car in theory. I’d buy one for my commute car today if they were ready for prime time and I could afford it. I think a lot of people would.
I’ll keep my gasoline-powered minivan for my family vehicle, though.
As for the electrical energy required to make plug-ins worth it, go nuclear, baby.
One thing the Instapundit post touches on that is usually ignored is the transmission of electrical power rather than the generation. Though many systems are pushed too close to the limit, it’s usually the actual transport system for energy that is at fault for major problems. Not to mention the amount lost over long distances.
More smaller plants would help this, but then you lose some of the power of scale.
Where’s Mr. Fusion when you need him?
It seems that every good movie about the naval war in the Pacific mentions the “Coast Watchers.” In Harm’s Way, Father Goose and even the The Wackiest Ship in the Army all feature coast watchers in setting out the path to Allied victory.
So, who were the Coast Watchers?
In a former life, I began working on a screenplay in which the Coast Watchers figured prominently. If anyone in the movie business wants to see a four page treatment for a WW2 action/drama by Murdoc, send money and I’ll get it off to you shortly.
Otherwise, go read Eagle’s whole post.
Old Destroyer to Get Tech Makeover?
Among the advanced technologies being considered for the “extra” Burke-class ships to be built instead of five DD(X) ships are a hybrid propulsion system and the 155mm Advanced Gun System.
We’ve discussed putting the AGS on Burkes before. It seems the the system would fit but that there’s only room for 120 rounds in the magazine.
Something else being looked at is a “non-combat adjunct ship,” sort of an AWACS ship with advanced sensors. This is something I’ve brought up before, and I wonder if a high-tech stand-off SEAWACS directing swarms of LCSs or gunboats might not be worth a look.
UPDATE: Aegis Triumphant
So far, the seagoing Aegis radar system has used SM-3s to knock down nearly 90 percent of the test missiles fired towards it. This includes shooting down a low flying space satellite. There are 18 U.S. Navy ships equipped with SM-3, and the navy would like enough money to equip all of its Aegis equipped ships (90) with the SM-3. This is expensive, as it costs a few million bucks to upgrade the Aegis radar and install the new software. And then there are the SM-3 missiles, which cost three million dollars each. The navy won’t say how many SM-3 missiles are on each ship equipped to handle them, but it’s probably something like at least a dozen. So to equip over 80 additional Aegis ships with SM-3 would cost over three billion dollars.
The DD(X) radar would not readily work with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
Adventurer Steve Fossett ‘may have faked his own death’
Not sure that I’m buying this but things do seem a bit weird. It also seems like insurance investigators are trying to nix the payment.
USAF Sets Orbital Spaceplane Test Flight
X-37B OTV will fly in November aboard an Atlas V.
Navy: No need to add DDG 1000s after all
Sudden about-face on this. Expect about fifteen more in the next 5-10 years.
Bring the Troops Home Now, so we can protest them
Idiots in Washington state continue to protest equipment returning from Iraq.
Befuddled Media Invests in Kleenex
CNN’s Jack Cafferty can’t figure out why isn’t Obama doing better in the polls.
Australia Riding U.S. Coattails in War?
A recently-retired Australian general has written a book accusing the Aussie military of deliberately avoiding heavy combat.
The Sniper Revolution
More snipers in combat and more aimed shots from standard infantry.
New NFL rules for 2008
I’m not sure that I like the elimination of the forceout rule for receivers, but the eliminatin of the incidental facemask penalty and the option for teams winning the coin toss to defer to the second half are both good and overdue.
Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet
“Perhaps he will succeed where I have failed,” Gore said.
Startup Converting Ford F-150s Into 41 MPG Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
Prototype conversions currently cost $60,000.
Someone Call the A-Team
Cause the police ain’t doin shit.
Favre reportedly mulling offer to stay retired
There’s no chance whatsoever that threats to return to the NFL had anything to do with this negotiation. Zip. Nada.
It’s time to declare a moratorium on any and all coverage of Michelle Obama and her children
If they don’t want the spotlight on them they need to stop stepping into the spotlight.
The Biggest Guns in Human History
Things that go BOOM.
Five Hot Dogs That Will Kill You
Including Paula Deen’s Lard Dog.
8 People Who Will Ruin Your Party
Don’t be one of these 8 people. Unless you can successfully pull of three at once, which is cool.
Friday Gunzookery
More links at GunPundit.
