Over in China
Hear that loud WHOOSH? That’s the sound of China whizzing past the United States in its development of a high-speed rail technology. China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network. The country’s not satisfied to rest on its laurels though. It has plans to have 8,125 miles of the network in operation by 2012—and 10,000 miles by 2020.
In late October, China inaugurated the world’s fastest train. “The China-made CRH380 train has been clocked at almost 420 kilometres per hour (kph) (262 miles per hour (mph), a world speed record, though it will usually operate at a maximum speed of 350 kph (220 mph).”
According to an article in The Mainichi Daily News, the United States leads the world in freight railroad technology but has little high-speed rail expertise. The United States will most likely “have to import the technology for the 13 regional projects that have won $8.5 billion in initial federal funding, with $2.5 billion more to come this year and hundreds of billions needed before lines are up and running.”
Back Here in the United States
Two newly elected GOP governors have pledged to kill $1.2 billion in funding for high-speed rail in their states—John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin. According to Think Progress, “Walker warned he would fight President Obama to keep the Milwaukee-Madison link killed ‘if he tries to force this down the throats of the taxpayers.’” Kasich has called the high-speed rail project that would link Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati “one of the dumbest ideas that he’s ever heard. He even used his victory speech to announce, “that train is dead.”
Kasich and Walker and politicians like them are definitely not progressive thinkers. I guess they prefer the status quo. Is this what conservatism is all about? Is our country on a high-speed train to becoming the United States of Luddites???
I wonder why Huey Lewis’s song Back in Time came to mind when I was writing this post???
Picture Credit: 颐园新居
Sources:
-Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
MJK, Thanks. I occasionally like to watch BSC propaganda. I think its funny; comedy from a crazy place. Like Sam Kinison but not as detailed in the explanation of the grievance. I scanned it but had to linger over some parts. I didn’t particularly like Kineson’s political humor (he did very little of it) but I appreciated the howling, it was refreshing. Mr. Whittle (above) should put some howling in his act.
On world hunger:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNoJ2BzSRU&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Elaine, I scanned through it; “race-baiting, power-grabbing statists”; “nanny state”; “the left is killing it,(the American dream) the grievance-mongering, lazy, resentful, big state, power-hungry, collectivist, fascists”; and a wall of shame montage featuring Obama, Michael Moore, Sean Penn etc. LOL, what a rant, with a touch of god thrown in. And it’s more, much more. So much so that I’m amazed that many targets can be packed into the 5-6 minutes devoted to his argument. Not really an argument with facts, just name calling.
I think the upshot is that the race-baiting, power grabbing, nanny-statist grievance-mongering etc. etc. liberals/socialists stole our future.
MJK,
That’s a ten-minute video. Could you give me a synopsis of it–or explain to me in your own words why you think “we are not moving forward as we should?”
here is a video that might explain why we are not moving forward as we should:
ekeyra,
The main point of this thread is about technological progress and innovation. Let’s ask Bastiat what position he’d take on the subject of developing a high-speed rail system in the 21st century, shall we?. Oh, what’s that? He died a long, long time ago? Now we’ll never know. Such a pity.
lottakatz,
Here’s a little information on one of the solar technologies my husband was telling me about:
Solar panels thin as a sheet of paper being developed by MIT
http://www.greenlaunches.com/alternative-energy/solar-panels-thin-as-a-sheet-of-paper-being-developed-by-mit.php
GREEN TECH
NANOSOLAR POWERSHEET
THE NEW DAWN OF SOLAR
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html
*********
My husband went to China early this year. I went in 1994 with a an educational delegation.
**********
I can’t remember ever hearing about the Zabbaleen before.
for larry might be right
heres bastiats wiki :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat
One of Bastiat’s most important contributions to the field of economics was his admonition to the effect that good economic decisions can only be made by taking into account the “full picture.” One must examine the decision’s effect not only on a single group of people or a single industry, but on all people and all industries in the society as a whole. As Bastiat famously put it, an economist must take into account both “What is Seen and What is Not Seen.”
To the rest, keep trying to argue the fact that the governments failure to subsidize an industry thats been around since before the civil war is holding us back as a leader in global innovation. Have fun with that.
Elaine, it sounds as if your husband is on the front lines of mitigating the effects of the disposable society, a nobel calling. The trip to China, for any reason, sounds fascinating.
If I were going to build/buy a house I’d put up a couple of wind turbines and augment them with a couple of solar panels. The technology with wind is such that the smaller units do a good job and take about half of the time solar panels do to pay for themselves. You need a lot of room though because they’re noisy and your neighbors eventually go nuts and shoot you if you don’t give them some space. Actually, from what I’ve read they just sue you but I’m betting they want to shoot you. 🙂
I was reading recently abut solar roof shingles as well as solar panels/cells that also generate electricity from the UV end of the spectrum; good steps forward. Your husband and Nate are in the new frontier of energy generation and I’m betting that’s one exciting place to be. Good for them both.
Have you ever read about the Zabbaleen, a Coptic Christian minority in Egypt, centered in Cairo that has as it’s profession and (to an almost absolute extent) cultural identity, the collection and recycling of trash.
Independent Lens did a fascinating movie which was shown on POV (Point of View) on the local public broadcasting channel titled: “Garbage Dreams”. It is fascinating. It follows three Zabbaleen young men as they do their jobs and contemplate the enforced changes to their culture. I was looking around the interwebs to see if it was posted anywhere (not ignoring your post) but it’s not, the trailers are but the movie is not to be viewed.
If POV ever re-runs it, it’s an excellent movie. It works on several levels: political, personal, documentary (in that the culture will not survive and probably shouldn’t in it’s old configuration) and the young men will linger in your memory long after the movie is over.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049415/usercomments
lottakatz,
My husband once worked for a company that built a big windfarm in Altamont Pass in California–east of San Francisco. He’s told me about some of the new solar technologies that are being investigated/developed at the present time.
Nate, Thanks you for your kind encouragement. It’s the election season. I have noticed that election season gets people all crazy. Even on this blawg filled with intelligent people discussions get uncharacteristic. A bit sharp. There’s a lot invested in elections and I think that’s a waste of time. Weeks ago I instructed myself to ‘just don’t take it seriously’. I also noticed many others, on the blawgs I visit were taking it seriously and that’s how it is every two years. It’s a cycle of madness and masochism.
Once the big event is over I am still focused on the things in the society that makes elections a big deal (even if your candidate wins) and those things are so tangled and hardened that it’s almost a bit of sadism to send someone off to try to ‘fix’ it. 🙂
Congrats on being grad school bound. Your field is wide open. Wind technology is old, hydro is old, everything is old tech but solar, wave and hydrogen extraction. The old techs are amenable to tampering with in design to improve efficiencies but a windmill is a windmill. Solar is going to need new materials and technologies to help it reach its potential.
lottakatz,
My better half has been involved with developing new recycling technologies/methods for nearly twenty years. He’s traveled to foreign countries–including China–on business. (I’ve also been to China.) My husband is a big proponent of doing research and the design/development of innovative technologies…to looking forward and trying to find ways to make things better for us in the future.
He enjoys good science fiction.
Lottakatz,
I’ve grown fond of you and your writing.
I’m grad-school bound, aiming to be a solar engineer. Don’t despair.
There’s lots of people like us, both here and out there. Life goes on – it always has.
Elaine, the better half is an old Sci-fi fan perchance?
I don’t see much progress anymore, I don’t even see maintenance anymore. Things like the pull back on high-speed rail is just a convenient avatar for a whole host of problems that no one seems to have the will (political) or motivation (private industry) to solve. I’m just disgusted tonight.
lottakatz,
My husband thinks your comment is right on target–so do I.
“spectacle” above. …sorry spectacle…
It seems a sorry spectal to me that we are dithering around debating high speed rail when Shanghai has a MAG-LEV TRAIN that reaches speeds of 250mph+ and there’s a Japanese Mag-lev experimental train that gets 350mph+. I’ve been waiting for mag-lev people and cargo movers for 50 years and now that they’re here they’re not HERE, we didn’t build them. Man, I’m really bitter about living in a country that increasingly reveals itself to be a third-world oligarchy. We have been pimped out as no more than the worlds consumer and we do that on credit. It sucks. 🙁
mmmwright,
I implied that China was surging past us in the development of high-speed rail technology. That’s it. Please don’t read more into my post than what I wrote.
I’ve traveled by Acela train a few times in the past year. I much prefer it to flying. I can arrive at the train station less than a half hour prior to boarding. The train is much more spacious, comfortable, has Wifi–AND I can take my luggage onto the train car with me. I don’t have to wait to pick it up upon arrival at the train station. Traveling by train is also much more convenient than driving long distances if one’s destination is big cities. The last time I traveled by Acela train, it was filled to capacity.
Saying that China is doing better than the U.S. because they have high speed rail and we don’t is just stupid. It’s completely subsidized as would the rail here be. I don’t mind someone building high speed rail here, but please don’t use my tax money. There are better things to use it on than a system of travel that cannot pay for itself.
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2010/01/the-timeless-appeal-of-triumphalism.html
I agree with Randall O’Toole:
The history of transportation shows that we adopt new technologies when they are faster, more convenient, and less expensive than the technologies they replace. High-speed rail is slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and far more expensive than either one. As a result, it will never serve more than a few marginal travelers.
Elaine M.,
Well said. I agree.
ekeyra,
I haven’t discussed the subject of a high-speed rail system with my friends–just with my husband. When I read about Kasich and Walker and their positions on the rail projects in their states, it reminded me of the recent stories I’d read about high-speed trains.
We have a lot of anti-progress, anti-science politicians like Kasich and Walker in our country. I find that troubling. As other nations develop new technologies, do people with their kind of mindset think our country can rest on its laurels and remain as an innovative leader.
If federal, state, and local governments don’t take care of our infrastructure–roads, highways, bridges–who do you propose should? Who will pay for building and maintenance of them? Do you propose they become toll roads and bridges owned by private entities?
My point in bringing up corporations and war contractors was to point out that privatizing government services/functions isn’t the answer. There’s plenty of corruption and incompetence to go arround in both government and the private sector. Maybe if our government had had tougher regulations on Wall Street Banks and the regulators kept a closer watch on what the banks were doing maybe we wouldn’t have suffered a near collapse of our economy. Corporate greed has not been good for this country.