High Speed Rail

Color me disappointed, and not just for personal geographic reasons. Take a look at this map. Sure the Coasts are served, but they are disconnected. "You cant get there from here" spots all over this map. The big thing for me though is the nice, long, straight shots are gray or "other passenger rail".

Wouldn't it make more sense for these multi hundred mile stretches between cities to be spanned by something like a 300mph bullet train? Is Denver not a major city? Why are the Mountain West and the Great Plains not linked to the West Coast like the Midwest and Mid-South are to the East Coast and the Upper Midwest?

Kansas City to Dallas? No. Miami to Atlanta or points North? No. Anywhere to Orlando or Vegas? No.

I mean Tulsa has that half scale replica of the World Trade Center, but seriously...

Read the rah rah here.

Give it to Tesla

In another offline conversation, I've discussed this idea before. We should give GM and Chrysler's billions to companies like Telsa.

This is an under capitalized company that is on the cutting edge of technology and getting hammered by the economic downturn...and they can put a thing of beauty like THIS on the road for $50k?

A properly wired home charging set up (480V) can recharge this baby in 45 MINUTES, and with the enhanced battery pack it can go 300 miles. That's a tank of gas people.

0-60 in less than 6 seconds, and the battery is easily accessible so battery swapping stations are possible.

Dont worry though. If Tesla fails to catch on, the Chinese will be happy to lead the way.

Google Shares its Server Design

Google drives innovation in Server Efficiency

What is this geeky nonsense and why am I blogging about it? Well off the grid yesterday I shared this article with a few buddies. Some gearheads had turned an old VW into an 84mpg medium high performance vehicle for about $7,000.

This article from Google makes me wonder why the large consumers of transportation technology arent demanding the same sorts of innovation and efficiency. What sort of clout does an Avis or a Hertz wield with GM? Could FedEx lock in to a multi-decade, multi-thousands of vehicles agreement with whoever makes their trucks and demand better fuel efficiency and lower costs?

Sure, you and I as consumers dont really give a crap about the cost of gasoline. Even when it's $4 a gallon our pain is mostly psychological. I buy about 750 gallons of gas a year. Incremental increases in cost really arent that meaningful. Sure, I hate seeing $60 go into my gas tank as much as the next person but it's REALLY not that much more money. Doubling a small number is really just a slightly larger small number.

But what about UPS or a chain like Marriott with their courtesy vehicles? Surely every penny in increased fuel costs tightens their belts....around their NECKS like a noose.

Google did this and innovated in an environment where electricity was relatively inexpensive. So why didnt "Cheap Electrons" cause the same sort of anti-innovation lethargy for their business that "Cheap Gas" does for transportation?

I know it's not apples to apples and the R&D on a new car is a lot more expensive than a server made out of 5 or 6 components, but I think this speaks more to the real problem in Detroit...the culture problem.

Discuss.

Someone Has to Stop Them

This put a smile on my face. I love geeks.

Alternative Energy Revolution - xkcd