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#1
Sports / Re: Re: 2022 NCAA Tourney brac...
Last post by JayhawkCO - Today at 10:25:29 AM
Quote from: Henry on March 28, 2024, 11:05:20 PMIt looks to be an all-ACC matchup in the Elite Eight, as UNC is leading big over Alabama. Clemson already won, so Saturday could be an interesting day if they hang on to win. Also, we'll have a second such matchup in that round if Duke and NC State win their respective games, but I wouldn't count on that happening.

This didn't age well. When I was trying to pick my dark horse to make the finals, I originally had Alabama and then switched to Auburn. Bad move by me.
#2
Off-Topic / Re: Frustrated visitors sue Na...
Last post by hotdogPi - Today at 10:15:05 AM
Quote from: SP Cook on Today at 10:07:49 AMCurrency reform - The reason the US still produces the one dollar bill is political.  The paper comes from a very powerful senator's state, and the company that makes it is in a triple featherbed union.  Obviously, we should mimic Canada with a one dollar coin and a two dollar coin, with the lowest bill being a five.

I don't think they would complain if the $1 became a coin and they ramped up production of $2 bills to compensate. (I would still prefer a $2 coin.)

Quote from: SP Cook on Today at 10:07:49 AMI don't care about the penny, yes I get that it isn't worth much anymore, but so what?  They are just chits being traded back and forth, no real costs as long as they are used and reused properly.

I've calculated that for retail, e.g. grocery stores, once prices are double what they are now (which will happen in most of our lifetimes), it will save companies money to round up change back to the nearest 5¢, losing the company 1-4¢ per transaction but saving a few seconds per customer.

Eliminating the penny also gives the drawers another coin slot to be used for the $1 coin. Similarly, pennies take up wallet space that could be used for a commonly used $1 coin.

And no longer producing pennies saves the government money.
#3
Off-Topic / Re: Frustrated visitors sue Na...
Last post by SP Cook - Today at 10:07:49 AM
Cashless - I don't care.  I carry more cash than I should, because I don't want to be caught short, but I only pay cash to this one diner that is really old fashioned, and which (illegally) charges a swipe fee.  I rack up the American Airlines points and travel for free.

Currency reform - The reason the US still produces the one dollar bill is political.  The paper comes from a very powerful senator's state, and the company that makes it is in a triple featherbed union.  Obviously, we should mimic Canada with a one dollar coin and a two dollar coin, with the lowest bill being a five.  I don't care about the penny, yes I get that it isn't worth much anymore, but so what?  They are just chits being traded back and forth, no real costs as long as they are used and reused properly.

Lawsuit - Like most such suits, these people are looking to get paid.  It is predatory litigation.  The SCOTUS has a shot at slapping down predatory litigators last year, but took a called strike.   
#4
Northeast / Re: New York State Thruway
Last post by seicer - Today at 10:07:20 AM
That's odd. Over the past week, I extensively used the Thruway, and the NYSTA posted my transactions on time. There were no overlapping or duplicate charges. Could it be a faulty transponder? A few people on Reddit had posted a similar complaint, and once they swapped out their transponder, it was resolved. I'm not sure how the transponder was the issue in this case...
#5
Traffic Control / Re: 1-2-3 Route number Additio...
Last post by hotdogPi - Today at 10:05:17 AM
Where is the 300 in the 1422 photo?
#6
Sports / Re: Da Bears look at Arlington...
Last post by JoePCool14 - Today at 10:03:42 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on March 23, 2024, 09:29:37 PMChicago in general has some really pathetic owners, especially McCaskey and Reinsdorf.

No kidding. Reinsdorf is a waste of space. He couldn't even be bothered to retain our beloved lead TV commentator who is a lifelong White Sox fan and was great at his job. Cheapskate. The Sox have almost zero chance of being good until he sells the team or dies.
#9
Pacific Southwest / Re: 🛣 Headlines About Californ...
Last post by cahwyguy - Today at 09:48:32 AM
Quote from: Quillz on March 28, 2024, 05:17:17 PMMight have been like this if not for the car industry. At one point LA (particularly the valley) had a cable car system similar to SF. If you've ever wondered why Sherman Way is as wide as it is, it's because the trolleys used to run down the center. There used to be trolleys and gondolas that would take you up to Mt. Wilson.

@Quillz  is incorrect. In addition to being a roadgeek, I'm interested in the history of rail in Los Angeles. I've been a member out at Orange Empire Rwy Museum (now SCRM, https://socalrailway.org/) since 1985.

Yes, there were cable cars in Los Angeles. Never were they in the San Fernando Valley; they were concentrated in downtown LA, and only for a few years. THey were not financially successful.

I don't recall PE ever running to Mt. Wilson. The Mt. Lowe line did run to the trailhead (see https://www.erha.org/penml.htm ) PE never ran gondolas. The Mt. Lowe line consisted of a conventional trolley line, a funicular, and a narrow gague line to the tavern at the top.

The density of PE and rail in the valley was extremely poor -- perhaps about as good as Metro's rail system might eventually be: There was the line that ran to North Hollywood through the pass, and the line that ran along Sherman Way (now Chandler), N. Sherman Way (now Van Nuys), and Sherman Way (now, uh, Sherman Way) to Owensmouth (now Canoga Park). There was a branch that continued up N Sherman Way to Parthenia, curved, across to Sepulveda, up to Brand, curved, and into San Fernando. That was it for much of the valley, although there were more lines to Burbank and Glendale. The Brand branch was gone by the 1930s, at least for passengers (it still served freight); the SFV line by the early 1950s.

What killed the rail? Not the cars or any conspiracy, but money. The PUC refused to allow rate increases for the rail lines, and without rate increases, PE couldn't improve vehicles. Many cars running in the 1950s were coaches from the 1910s. The PCC cars helped on some lines, but no cars had air conditioning or good suspension. Don't believe me? You can still ride them out at OERM/SCRM. Further, the streets were getting crowded, any many lines still ran shared with street traffic. There were a few private RoWs -- Sherman Way, Santa Monica, San Vicente, Glendale, Huntington. PE increasingly fought back by shutting down lines and moving to buses (although in the LATL and first MTA eras, the PUC didn't allow any rail line closures, although their weren't many left then).

One might argue that what killed the PE was that it was never designed as a transit line -- that wasn't its purpose. It was designed to sell real estate (1st), move local freight (2nd), and perhaps transport workers (3rd). Getting cars off the street wasn't its goal. The density of the city it helped create didn't support that. The road network and cars stitched together the multiple suburbs and communities in the LA basin into a rough conglomerate, and the legal decisions regarding water made it all one city (you wanted the water, you had to join the city). As always, no history is clean.

Los Angeles doesn't have the density to support traditional rail transit, and just like with cybersecurity (my professional specialty), attempting to retrofit is doesn't work. Adding subways and rail at this point is far too expensive, and will always be too little to late. One answer, which is slowly happening despite the NIMBYs, is to increase density along existing corridors, and improve those corridors.

So, folks like @Plutonic Panda will argue that widening and increasing roads will be the answer, and more freeways (such as the unbuilt ones) will solve things. That's not true either, as new freeways are as expensive as new rail lines, and often impact more people at the surface (really bad PR). Widening only improves things temporarily; I don't think anyone can point to a widening of a road in an urban area that has improved throughput after 5-6 years. There is concern about increased greenhouse gases (and increasing traffic doesn't help that -- even moving to electric doesn't help depending on where the power is sourced). The current approach seems to be pushing people to do more locally (less VMT), but is fighting against an existing infrastructure that encourages road use simply by where we place businesses and commerce.

There is no good or easy solution. Well, perhaps there is: Electric flying cars. Didn't they promise us those? But lacking that, on the ground, none of our answers will work. As such, many of our debates here are just pissing into the wind (but be careful lest the wind change direction).

The answers we are going to have are going to be incremental: An AUX lane here, a new rail lane there (cough, East SF Valley), some new bus infrastructure (cough, the new lanes on Sepulveda), new bike lines in flatlands, reworked areas for active transportation where there are loads of pedestrians, moving the personal vehicles to side streets and having only transit in those areas (and making that transit more frictionless in terms of ease of use) (cough, Hollywood); having more rail between the ports and logistic/transfer hubs, reducing truck traffic; and, yes, perhaps even congestion pricing, although that hurts some segments of the community disproportionally.

Daniel
#10
Off-Topic / Re: Frustrated visitors sue Na...
Last post by ZLoth - Today at 09:48:00 AM
Quote from: kalvado on Today at 06:56:24 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on Today at 06:29:25 AM$1s are still going to be the most-used, though, because they're the only bill that has a quasi-legitimate reason to have 4 in the same transaction. (This assumes you're like 99% of the population that pretends $2 bills don't exist, of course.)
You never bought a car for cash, do you?

I really hope you aren't one of those people who pays unwanted large bills (like property taxes or parking/traffic tickets) in just dollar bills or pennies. Those type of people are the worse because all it's harming is the clerks/cashiers who actually handle the money and pay absolutely no role in the decision of either setting your tax rate or receiving the ticket in the first place.

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