Yeah, that's a HUGE uphill battle. CA can't even get a single track super train system built without wailing and hair pulling.
Not that they picked the right location, mind you.
Yeah, that's a HUGE uphill battle. CA can't even get a single track super train system built without wailing and hair pulling.
Not that they picked the right location, mind you.
Which California HSR route alternative were you hoping for?
It's been in limbo for so long, I've kind of forgotten the options. I just recall thinking they could have set it up to include more major population centers e.g. the Bay Area ..... but I may be mis-membering.
SERIOUSLY!!! Absolutely ticks me off. Especially after enjoying the rail travel in Europe and Japan. Some serious bullcrap, buuuuuuut.....
Herein lies the problem. That is a prime example of the modern challenges we're up against in kicking off passenger rail again in the US. We have too many assholes trying to get a piece of dat sweet, sweet government pie. Between lawyers, crony construction contractors, burdensome red tape, it's become REALLY hard to get it done. China has done some seriously impressive high speed work lately, but they have the luxury of being able to tell its citizens to GTFO the way cuz we're laying track there whether you like it or not. I've seen the CA HSR get opposition from so many angles that it's struggled to build anything fast.
In the 1800s, the US had the concept of Manifest Destiny to push forth our Westward Expansion. When, even more hardcore than the Chinese today, the government basically told the Natives to GTFO the way cuz those tracks getting laid no matter what. I rip on cronyism now, but it's actually nothing new. In my research for work in MT, I've read many of the original document where various US Presidents hooked up the railroad companies with vast swaths of land (literally like 1/2 of the territory) and what would happen is if those lands got unused for rail, they'd have to convey the lands back to the US or the State depending on location. BUUUUUT then the RR got to hang on to the mineral rights, so they got to drill for oil or mine. A pretty controversial topic at the time that those lands came intact with the mineral rights to begin with.
See: The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, in which around 130 million acres were awarded to the rail companies. Just look into the history of the Rockefellers, Standard Oil (Mobil/Exxon/Chevron/etc), Union Pacific, BNSF, the list goes on. It's all intertwined, and the right people got mega mega wealthy over it and still are. Still, much as I hate to say it, THAT'S what it took for our vast rail network to happen and it's what it'd take to make it happen again. A combination of wild grants and a new "Westward Expansion" mentality. Except back then it didn't bankrupt the country. Now it prolly would. Unless we go full authoritarian to make it happen and just accept the cronyism for what it is. I feel conflicted.
Back then, they got it done for around 60 million (equivalent of about 1.2 billion today). The CA HSR ALONE is estimated to be around 88-128 billion. So like 100x the cost of the transcontinental railroad system that covered the entire goddam country, and yeah, that's taking inflation into account. How can we overcome that? I honestly don't know.
For better or worse, it really was a remarkable project! Absolutely changed the course of history for the United States' place in the world.
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I don't think you would like my viewpoint. The majority of homes at the YC are on a central sewer treatment system and the effluent is highly treated prior to being used to irrigate or now be converted into man made snow. I think the effects on the Gallatin stem from a leaky sewer system in Big Sky along with to damn many old drain fields that are no longer effective that are leaching out nutrients into the groundwater.Just talk to Bunion about the Yellowstone Club's effects on the watershed in the area like the effluent issues. He can expand on that topic in great detail.
It has been an odd but nice summer with only about 3 weeks of hot temperatures and several storm cycles that brought rain in quantity. No algae bloom in the usual places.
I have been in this State for 30 years and I am willing to admit that I am part of the problem.
"Happiest years of my life were earning < $8.00 and hour, collecting unemployment every spring and fall, no car, no debt and no responsibilities. 1984-1990 Park City UT"
I have no problem with your viewpoint! That's why I deferred to your expertise on the matter. It was a hot topic when I was there due to that big leak they had, but glad they got it figured out. Event I was thinking about was when this happened, which of course made their whole thing controversial:
Yellowstone Club wastewater pipe breaks - Effluent from 35-million-gallon wastewater pond leaking into Gallatin fork
https://www.explorebigsky.com/yellow...e-breaks/17807
Thanks, I appreciate that. Yeah, that was a contractor failure made worse by weather and some missed decisions. And not to defend anyone but that failure could have been so much worse and what was discharged while not drinkable was also not shit water. Since then LML has invested heavily in water treatment and that includes disposal of treated water like what got away. I believe plans call for spray irrigation in selected areas around 5 months out of the year and make snow with it for 4 months or so in early winter. Be interesting to see if Big Sky follows suit.
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I was posting when you wrote this. NO SHIT..... fucking Italy.....
Can you imagine the job creation?
I have been in this State for 30 years and I am willing to admit that I am part of the problem.
"Happiest years of my life were earning < $8.00 and hour, collecting unemployment every spring and fall, no car, no debt and no responsibilities. 1984-1990 Park City UT"
This new information makes shitty snow conditions a reality.
Then in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. We're done with "those" imagrants, keep them out now!
Terrifying flooding in Libya. Is it safe to say this shit is happening more often in more places these days? 16” of rain in a day. Holy fuck.
Could be climate change.
Or. It could be the weather warfare that goes on these days.
Operation Popeye wiped put the Ho Chi Minh trail. And that was over fifty years ago.
Or. Climate change is real. And countries are struggling with weather control technology to make the most of what time we have left.
I tend to believe the latter.
How do you sleep at night???
Pretty sure the Western US did this last winter why else would the USA get nuked while inner BC and Alberta got absolutely dick and one of their driest winters ever.
Got no problem with this either as humans we have to adapt and survive to climate and the environment and as a civilized society population growth is as essential as oxygen and clean water for our survival. Cloud seed away and apologize latter the warts that come with it are worth it.
Scary Chinese. That’s a lot of area they plan on Geoengineering.
But nothing much to say about us efforts. Or Dubai or any other wealthy country.
“He who controls the weather controls the world”
Quote by LBJ back in the sixties.
Weather as a force multiplier.
https://archive.org/details/WeatherAsAForceMultiplier
Written in 1996 with the goal of owning the weather by 2025
Crazy hail. Torrential rains. Snow in the desert. Extremely cold snow in the Dakota’s after 80 degree weather days earlier and hundreds of thousands of cattle flash frozen.
Nothing to see here.
PS. Don’t eat snow anymore.
Because of their government, China seems to be able to deploy tech advances at a large national scale much easier than the US or other democratic-ish nations. Cloudseeding that I’m aware of in the US is deployed at a state or lower level. The clouds immediately over (or entering) a targeted watershed are seeded from a small plane or from the ground and they drop more water or snow, generally in that targeted area. It’s been going on in California for decades. There are studies, I think out of Canada, where thunderheads were seeded to (successfully) mitigate hail storms - dropped as rain instead.
Dp
Finally a weather patriot telling some truth-telling facts!
What about Africa having some sort of machine that creates hurricanes that *always* get pointed to the states. Who's behind that? Just asking questions here. What bugs me is all the big fans off-shore near Boston protecting the rich and blowing these massive storms up to Nova Scotia. These fans double are actually wind farms - but I bet, just a hunch here guys, they have motors in them deep below the sea and turn on to protect the coastal elite. Anyone see pics of them spinning during a hurricane?? Exactly. very suspicious IMO.
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