California High Speed Rail

I've seen a lot of articles about high speed rail in California, and how the expected cost has exploded. Conservatives can't grasp why anyone would assume this could get any passengers.  It's slower than air travel (LA to SF), and will cost more.  Why would anyone go by rail?

Let's explore...

Q: Does Congress have power to regulate interstate commerce?
A: Well, yeah, that is in the Consitution, but...

Q: Okay, so then who has power to regulate intrastate commerce?
A: The states!  That's well established in the 10'th amendment.

Q: And do the states have the power to regulate commerce in the name of environmental protection?
A: I didn't think so, but California seems to have gotten away with that.

Q: And is air travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco intrastate commerce?
A: I don't think I like where this is going, but yes.

Q: So, you concede that the states could limit or ban such commerce in the public interest?
A: WTF!  You have got to be kidding me!

If anyone knows of any reason...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057081/Engaged-couple-discover-brother-sister-parents-meet-days-wedding.html

Clapton is 66

Yikes, that makes me feel old.

http://www.myspace.com/ericclapton/music/songs/cocaine-32368

Oysters anyone?

Cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay would be cool and everything. There is also an economic aspect to it.

"Bay pollution is not only an ecological disaster, it's an economic one, too," said Ann Jennings, the group's Virginia director.

For example, the decline of the Chesapeake oyster alone has cost Virginia and Maryland more than $4 billion over the past 30 years, the report said.

Wow! That seems like a lot of oysters. In fact, let's do the math.

$4B over 30 years is over $133M/yr. (I'll assume they're talking about current dollars.)

But how many oysters is that? Well, as of two weeks ago -

The buyers had been paying as much as $42 per bushel but, this week, they lowered the price to $35, said Danny Webster of Deal Island. And rumors are circulating that the price could drop to $30 next week.

OK, at $35/bushel that $133M is going to buy us 3.81 million bushels of oysters per year. Given that the average American eats only about 1 1/2 ounces of oyster meat per year, that ought to pretty well supply all of us.

Fields of Dreams

In the movie Field of Dreams the characters Ray and Terrence mystically pick up a kid on the road going to try out for a little baseball team in the midwest. They comment on how there haven't been that sort of league for years.

Well, yes they do exist. Here is one such team in the Northern League - the Lake County Fielders.

And the owner? Kevin Costner.

3-D plotting

This is something I thought I was going to have to write myself. A 3-D plotter that allows you to rotate the view to any angle. Thanks gnuplot!

The Country That Pees Together Stays Together

Re: the Olympic Gold Medal hockey game -

EPCOR, the water utility company that runs the fountains up in Edmonton, Canada released this graph yesterday. It's water consumption during the Olympic gold medal hockey game, overlaying consumption of the previous day. How much do Canadians love their hockey? A lot.

The first period ends. Time to pee. The second period ends. Time to pee. The third period ends. Time to pee. Consumption goes way down when Canada wins and during the medal ceremony.