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Japan to Launch Commercial MagLev in 2025

The other day I found an article about MagLev trains. Nothing new and exciting, except that Japan is set to launch their first long-distance MagLev train by 2025! Hello!!! This is very big news. It’s very big news, but very disappointing news for those here in the U.S. Why? Because our national train policy is flawed, AmTrak is a mismanaged money-pit, and no one in Washington can look further than a week in terms of developing alternative transportation technology for this country.

People, the U.S. is way behind in a lot of things. Internet connectivity alone, the U.S. ranks 15th in broadband connectivity and penetration per 100 inhabitants, as shown by research from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The U.S.’s electricity grid is strained and working at a capacity level that some people are comfortable with.

Our national road and highway infrastructure is starting to crumble – sure patch work is being done, but there are only so many times one can patch a hole in a sinking ship.

Eventually, at some point in the future, fuel prices will be so high that driving your car, whether it be a short or long distance may not be cost efficient. Flying on a plane may be a right reserved for the wealthy.

The U.S. needs to think about the future, and start developing plans for a better national rail policy. AmTrak can only be propped up so many times, as it consistently loses money. Short trips (Boston to New York to D.C.) need to be made more attractive and profitable.

While other countries like China, Japan, France and Germany spend billions of R&D on MagLev technology for their future, the U.S. is pouring countless billions of dollars into Afghanistan and Iraq to sustain the dependence on oil, to line the pockets of the already-rich, and to further bankrupt this Government.

Time for some changes, my friends. It can be done. People just have to want it to be done. It can be done.

For information on what we are doing in the U.S. as far as commercial, production MagLev technology, please see the following links:

For the link to the article about Japan’s new MagLev designed for use by 2025, see this link.)

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While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Sorry for all of the video posts lately, but they have been necessary. I planned to take a little break from that, until I found this little rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Tom Petty and Prince, inducting George Harrison into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve never been a big fan of Prince’s (or the Artist Formally Known as Prince for that matter) music, however, I also didn’t realize he could play guitar this well. Perhaps it’s time I rethink my opinions.

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4/26/07 – 21st Anniversary of Chernobyl

Not that 21 years is a particularly significant milestone, but this post is just to remind us all of the dangers of unsafe nuclear power generation, and the amount of harm it can use to both people and the environment for generations.

Below, I have included some links to photos, photo journals, and information about the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.

Photos/Journals/Links:

http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/GhostTown/html/spring2007.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961336-1,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
http://www.answers.com/topic/chernobyl-disaster-1
http://www.spaceman.ca/gallery/chernobyl
http://www.helpmearoundtheworld.com/elenafilatova/ghosttownfilm.mpg
http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/
http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/
Google Maps
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18244315
http://insp.pnl.gov/photobook/UK_CH/

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Failed War On Drugs

Isn’t it about time we called the troops home, and declared a defeat? No, not Iraq, although I’ll admit I don’t have a good answer as to what to do about that. I’m talking about the War on Drugs. The U.S.’s War on Drugs officially started with Nixon in 1969, continued through the Carter and Reagan administrations. As someone born in 1975, I can remember all of the anti-drug teachings in school, how marijuana was bad and it will make you kill your parents. How rock music is the Devil’s work, and so on.

Kind of a failed policy, don’t you think? Billions of dollars wasted on an unwinnable war. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Here’s some news from MSNBC today about how cocaine prices are falling in the U.S.. If you’ve taken Economics 101, you know what falling prices means: increased supply flooding the market, or decreased demand. I highly doubt that the demand for cocaine or any drug has decreased. I do however believe, that even after $5 billion USD spent in Columbia alone, that the cocaine production there is skyrocketing.

Here’s an article on how today’s pot is stronger than before. Umm, isn’t that the point? You know they say you don’t want a cheap, watered-down beer? Doesn’t the same hold true for weed?

And doesn’t it just drive you nuts that some of the most damaging substances you could put in the human body are perfectly legal to buy in nearly any consumption amount you want, provided you’re 18 or 21? Don’t believe me, read this article that talks about the most dangerous substances. Both Cannabis and Ecstacy come in less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco! I believe weed has enormous medical benefits, and I believe that Ecstacy has enormous mental health benefits.

Isn’t it time that we perhaps did something other than “stay the course” on the U.S. Drug Policy? Isn’t it time for change? The fact of the matter is that no matter how much you educate, people will still put harmful things in their body. Millions and millions of people do it everyday but consuming alcohol or inhaling tobacco. Those items are taxed and regulated by the Government.

I got an idea! Why not make everything legal, but highly regulated? Tax revenue from the sale of these items could provide a windfall of cash for a U.S. economy strained by wartime spending. In the beginning, yes, I believe you’re going to have a flux of people who go out to buy weed just because the law says they can do so legally now. That, however, will taper off as the initial “excitement” of it dies down. The regular pot smokers will still buy weed, only this time the public can benefit from it by the increased tax revenue earned from each sale.

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Astronomers Find Another Earth-like Planet

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard the news that scientists have discovered a possible Earth-like planet orbiting a Red Dwarf. The planet, named Gliese 581c, is about 20 light-years from Earth. That is to say that if you could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles/second), it would take you twenty years to get there. Since at the current time, we can’t even come close to the speed of light, the distance involved is relatively moot.

For some perspective on this distance/speed, consider that Voyager-1 is our most-distant spacecraft, which was launched in 1977. In September of 2004, it was only 13 light-hours away from Earth. It took Voyager-1 twenty-seven years to travel 13 light hours. For some more perspective, our galaxy (the Milky Way) is about 100,000 light-years across. The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the known universe.

It’s extremely important to note that scientists have estimated the surface temperature of this possibly rocky, wet planet is between 32 and 100 degrees, F. The planet, at this point in the science, has many earth-like characteristics.

Apparently, this discovery immediately boosted to odds that humans are not alone in the Universe, from 1000-1 to 100-1. Personally, I’ve always believed life – intelligent and otherwise – exists out there. In fact, I’m one of the people that believe that intelligent life has visited Earth in the past, is currently visiting us, and will visit us in the future. I think it’s sort of selfish to think that we, as humans, are the sole piece of life in this single universe. There might be multiple universes, no one knows. Humans have been around for a few hundred thousand years at best. The Earth is billions of years old, and there are countless stars and planets out there that are several billion years older than Earth. Life may exist elsewhere, or it may have existed on some other planet billions of years ago. To them, we are the future. To us, they are the past.

What’s also interesting to note is that all of our radio signals have reached this planet since the mid 1980s, so while radio contact isn’t necessarily the best means of contacting a civilization (as they have to be listening for that signal), it has reached “them” now for 20+ years.

NASA has always said, “if you want to find life, follow the water.” With the potential there for this planet to have large amounts of liquid water, there exist the possibility of life. If the possibility of life exists, the possibility of intelligent life exists. If intelligent life exists, I’d like to see the die-hard Christians explain that one!

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Alec Baldwin’s a Bad, Bad Man

Ok, by now you have heard that he left his daughter some god-awful voicemail message. I ignored the news for a few days, until finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to listen.

Well, what I heard was rather astounding. Granted, we don’t know the truth to both sides of the story. At this point, either his daughter is an evil little bitch, or boy did he over-react as a father. I’m not even sure what she could have possibly done to warrant the language he used to her, calling her names. To me, it sounds like he’s ultimately concerned about his public/private image, and no so much her well-being, and for that, he should be spanked.

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Good Old Boris, RIP

Boris Yeltsin died today. I kind of liked the guy. He was the first Russian leader elected by the populous, and he definitely had a face you could laugh at. He was a bit of a drinker though, but then again, what Russian isn’t? Here’s Bill and him yucking it up. RIP, Boris.

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Two New Yorker’s Set Sail for 1000 Days

I don’t know how they can do it, or how they have the will to do it. I think I know why they’re doing it. Their reasons for why they are doing it are the exact same reason why I don’t do it. And I’ll leave it at that.

Still, 1,000 days and nights with no port calls? I’ll follow up with a post about them perhaps midway through their journey, and definitely at the end. For now, read this MSNBC article.

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The Name Game

One of my friend’s from college told me that his mother once worked in inner-city Philadelphia as a teacher, and she had a kid in the class named “Shithead”, but it was pronounced “Shih-theed”. Likely story I suppose, until at my day job one day, a customer was named “Wayne Dwopp”. No joke.

I stumbled upon The Drunk Kansan website a few nights ago, and I found a link to the below video at Youtube. I used to watch The Love Connection all the time, and I never remember this episode.