Posts Tagged ‘technology’
The Mini Triangle
Today we’re going to wrap up our look at a hypothetical Texas-High Speed Rail system. We’ve already looked at the how a privately operated high-speed system could start as a regional rail service in the major cities, now we’re going to see how these regional lines can interconnect and form a more complete system.
The Routes
The question of where to route a high-speed train in Texas is probably the most widely discussed aspect of the subject. There have been a number of proposals, from the fairly straightforward Texas TGV to the outright asinine Trans-Texas Corridor, and the low cost “Texas T-Bone” plan. In an attempt to combine the best elements of the “Triangle” and the “T-Bone” into a single system, I’ve come up with an alternate plan.
The Trains
When considering a high-speed rail system one of the most important questions is, “What kind of train should we use?” There are a number of technologies in existence around the world that a high-speed rail system could be built with, and each of them has certain advantages and certain drawbacks.
First, there are conventional steel-wheel trains. Without [...]
Introduction
Today I’m starting a series on high-speed rail. This first post contains my opening thoughts, and some of the background assumptions that inform the rest of what I’m going to write about.
The Human Brain versus a Computer
This article, “Computers versus Brains,” from the New York Times, is a really entertaining read. I enjoyed it and I hope you will too. The article gives a keen illustration of the innate differences between biological and natural systems and artificial and mechanical ones – a difference that good urbanists should be keenly aware of [...]
Community Broadband Battle in Wilson, NC
While we’re on the subject of internet and phone providers, this article from dailytech.com is a great example of government lobbying at its best. Basically, the city of Wilson, North Carolina is offering extremely fast high speed internet to residents at a fraction of the cost of its competitors Time Warner and Embarq. Instead of [...]
Newswire: April 16, 2009
Wikipedia Word of the Day
Hypermiling – a method of increasing your car’s gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices. -hypermiling.com
Ozone, Lung Disease, and Houston’s Air Quality Ranking
Today on Discovery News I found this article: Ozone Linked to Deadly Lung Disease. The article was pretty interesting, explaining that long-term exposure to high ozone levels dramatically increases the risk for lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.
On days when ozone levels are high, breathing can be difficult and exercising outdoors is usually discouraged. Now [...]
In other news…
I have two interests that I rarely write about. The first, sports, I don’t write about because as much as I like it I always find that my knowledge of sports pales in comparison to the real ‘die-hards’ out there, and also because it’s written into the ground already. The second, technology, I don’t write [...]
Contact Us
The fastest way to reach us is by email. You can use the addresses listed below to reach us, but to prove you're not a spam-bot you'll have to type them in to your email client manually!
Topics
License and Privacy
- neoHOUSTON design by Andrew Burleson
All neoHOUSTON articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.- For commercial uses of the works listed on the site, please contact the post author to obtain permission.
- For privacy information, please click here.