The trains aren’t even made yet. The parts are being made. The one part needs redoing. This is no Federal case.
I don’t ever recall searching anything about babies, and I have two healthy children. There is more of an issue keeping them off the internet… or at least the terrible mobile games designed to hook kids to their parent’s credit card.
I could not concieve a worse parenting advice source.
I mean, I just asked my mum. She had three kids, she is smart and knowledgeable.
She’s a better source than ChatGPT, and being a former high school headmistress, she would put ChatGPT in its place with double detention and no internet access.
I should have been clearer. Spending that much to upgrade a system that only covers 36 miles.
Point is, they’re not getting much value for their money.
But what if your mum doesn’t have any kids? What are people supposed to do then, Einstein?
I think… uh… I think… that would move the conversation from the philosophical into the more esotertic.
I used to ride that system most days.
In many ways it’s light rail done right. They have lots of frequency, which takes lots of trains. The track mileage is not a large number because the entire area is not that large. Where I live now we also have rail transit, but the frequency is so low as to be next to useless. And the ridership shows it. High frequency demands that the investment in vehicles seems high compared to the track mileage.
For darn sure an ideal system for St. Louis a la the London Underground or NYC would add another 5-10 lines each 5 to 10 miles long so service was everywhere, not just along a few key corridors.
And yes, having ridden through those old tunnels many times, most of them are a tight squeeze for a modern rail vehicle with an overhead pantograph and catenary. More typically a tight squeeze design would use an electrified third rail to fit. But that’s incompatible with most of the right of way that is not access controlled. Live third rails and random pedestrians don’t mix.
The low overhead, and tight turn radii, were something that was well known when the tunnels were converted to this use back in the 1990s. It sounds like what really happened is that corporate knowledge retired and the new vendor also had no memory of the old vendor’s engineering specs. Just one of the many reasons to use continuous renewal, not episodic wholesale replacement every 40 years.
Decades ago, I had to manage a custom-made data-acquisition program. It was written by a college intern who worked for the firm for 1.5 years and was gone. The maintenance was mine.
The system was written in a “graphical programming language” that I had never seen before. Fortunately, the intern kept me updated on his progress, so I had an inkling of how the program worked. That is, when it worked. It often did not, so I had to muck with it to get it running again.
A year or two later, I had a technician working for me. He started taking over the operational responsibilities, but would call me when it wouldn’t work, where I would start poking around until it was working again,
One time, my technician asked me to just tell him how to fix it, that it would be so much faster that way. I had to tell him that I couldn’t tell him, since I didn’t know, that I was making shit up as I went, just like he was.
To this day, I don’t think he believed me.
Updating aging public transportation systems isn’t cheap. The MBTA in Boston is spending over $1 billion on trains alone for the Red & Orange lines, and that’s about 40 miles of track total.
Had a heated conversation with my husband and it took two hours to fall asleep last night, but I have calmed the fuck down today. I need to let go of what I can’t control. If executive leadership is doing it wrong, all that really matters is I’m doing my job. And I am definitely doing my job. My profound existential dread about whether or not our current life is sustainable has to be put aside because we’re doing our will and trying to get help for our son. That’s what my husband told me, anyway.
I’ve been thinking of having a meeting with my boss just to talk about some of the things stressing me out lately. I want to be real clear about expectations.
Anyway, what’s a little surveillance between friends? Poor me, I had to buy two new computer monitors for my home office to be more compliant at work. So I got two 27" HD curved gaming monitors. This might actually turn out to be better than the ultra-wide 34". I basically got the exact same model, just in a different size, so I already know I’ll love them.
Now I just need time to play video games. Maybe on break.
The boy is getting evaluated for ADHD on the 29th. I don’t know if he really needs all that neuropsych testing. All the doctor needs to do is just stand in a room with him for five minutes. I’m hoping that with diagnosis will come guidance about ways to help him.
To lodge a complaint: I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with backtalk until my son was a teenager. This kid argues with everything.
I see what you mean. Yes, it seems hard to swallow.
Well, that was the wrong thread. Sorry about that.
Earlier this week, the Financial Times ran an article about the effect that private equity is having on the investment market.
It’s all a bit too wonky for me to understand, but I direct your attention to the file photo they used to illustrate the article, which clearly the economics professor who wrote the article isn’t aware of the context of.
(Just in case you aren’t aware, that’s a shot from the 1999 teen comedy American Pie (best known for introducing the word “milf” to the English language) in which Eugene Levy has just caught his son Jason Biggs fucking a pie.)
Nah, that’s an FT Alphaville column and they knew exactly what they were doing.
Alphaville has a pretty wide remit to cover all aspects if the financial world and to do so in a way that is considerably less dry than the rest of the paper.
This round up of last year’s best stories gives a flavour, including liberal use of screenshots from movies inc Starship Troopers and American Psycho.
Former Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) publishes an article in the New Republic arguing that, even if Democrats win a House majority in the midterms, Mike Johnson could refuse to seat Democrats en masse and thus remain Speaker with a minority.
The New Republic then adds an editor’s note invalidating the entire argument he made after multiple readers, including the former Solicitor General of Ohio, point out that the House is not a continuing body and Johnson won’t be Speaker when it reconvenes unless the majority of the new Congress elects him again.
This woman hit someone with her car and left the scene. She got caught when she tried to file an insurance claim saying her car was parked and someone, somehow, side swiped the passenger side of it.
Rarely have I seen a booking photo that radiates intelligence and empathy to such an extent.
Have you ever heard the song “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made A Loser Out Of Me)”? Seems to apply here.
If you don’t like my driving, stay off the sidewalk!
Very well said. Bravo, Good Sir!
She also looks like somebody who gets beaten with some regularity. And I don’t mean by the police.
I posted a comedic video reply to a post on the 14th. But when it comes to ‘news’, I prefer to read So I don’t know what this FB post is about:
MAGA Shocked to Learn Waterfalls Exist Outside America – Niagara Falls Goes Vegas, Laura Ingraham Says “Not On My Continent”
Doug Ford’s government says the investment will attract global visitors, create jobs, and turn Niagara Falls into a year-round destination beyond raincoats and souvenir magnets.
Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham reacted as though Canada had violated a Fox News zoning law, proving once again that some opinions travel faster than facts — especially across borders.
I think it’s just that Ingraham didn’t realize that Niagara Falls is between both countries, with the US on one side and Canada on the other, and was acting like Canada was trying to claim something on US soil.
To be fair, I expect a lot of Americans are ignorant of that. But you’d hope someone who for decades has been involved in something that at least touches on the news in a vague, tangential way would know better.
Or, maybe she assumed whatever Canada does might carry over and negatively affect the US side as well. It’s clear that Republicans have very little respect for Canadian sovereignty, probably taking a cue from their cult leader.