Europe Travelblog  -

+ 1 - 5 | § ¶Getting Up to Speed - What it will take to get High Speed Rail in America

As part of an issue on infrastructure, the New York Time Magazine has an article called Getting Up to Speed, which I found to be a really interesting discussion of where train travel is in California now, how much better trains are in Europe, and where the political process is to bridge the gap.

The fundamental case made by his rail authority is that the stupendous cost of the rail plan is still tens of billions of dollars lower than the other option — expanding the highways and airports to accommodate the state’s population growth."

Yes, it's expensive to bring high speed rail to America, but that complaint seems to ignore that this would be spending that would reduce the amount of spending necessary for highway and air travel.  I don't understand why the rails are expected to go it alone when we taxpayers subsidize road and air traffic so much instead.

+ 3 - 5 | § ¶My Sister's House is Famous

I just found out that this classic 1975 Pepsi commercial was filmed at my sister's house!  They've done a huge remodel, so the porch isn't there anymore, but it's the same house.

+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Disappointed in NPR

I very rarely find myself yelling at the radio when I'm listening to NPR, but this story about acupuncture this morning did the trick.

I'm very disappointed by this report.  The study discussed did not show that acupuncture works.  What it showed is that acupuncture is no better than a fake version of acupuncture that the recipient thinks is real. This means that acupuncture itself provides no benefit other than the recipient thinking that there is a benefit.

That is called the placebo affect. Acupuncture has never been shown to be anything more than a placebo.

Yonkers (a patient interviewed in the story) is seeing some benefit from her monthly treatment, but there are two strong possibilities that are much more likely than acupuncture efficacy:

1. The placebo effect
2. Spending an hour a month in a soothing environment, a spa where "I know it's just going to be time to relax and be by myself," gives her what she needs. Have her go to a spa without the needles, and she'll probably see a benefit. Have her be stuck with needles while children are banging pots around her, and there's probably no benefit.

This story should have been about how the ritual and the relaxation create a placebo effect.  Instead, it just promoted woo and fake medicine.

Steven Novella of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe has a lot more information about this inaccurate spin of acupuncture's failure.

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+ 5 - 5 | § ¶I Guess I Could Get Used to Poutine

Fareed Zakaria just introduced me to another pair of interesting ideas: the ease with which I could legally live outside the United States, and the artificial hurdles the United States puts up to expanding our skilled and educated workforce.

When we lived in Germany in 2005, we had to come back from that great experience earlier than I would have liked because we couldn't get long-term legal status.  We looked into the possibility of getting legal status in other European countries, but all of them built their requirements on close family connections.  While this makes some sense, it's not really a system designed for the future economy, is it?

Of course, I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about trying to get into the USA.  Our immigration policy is just a mess, I'm glad I don't have to navigate it, and it's not designed to build our economy, either.

And then there's Canada.

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+ 14 - 4 | § ¶How St. Louis Makes use of Snow

This is right outside the Cardinals' Busch Stadium, in the area that used to be the previous stadium.

(Thanks to Matthew Porter for the image)

+ 8 - 12 | § ¶My Favorite word of 2008

Recombobulation Area

An area at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee in which passengers that have just passed through security screening can get their clothes and belongings back in order.

+ 12 - 8 | § ¶The Reality of Vaccines.

It's good to see the forces of reality fighting back.

Many doctors now argue that reporters should treat the antivaccine lobby with the same indifference they do Holocaust deniers, AIDS deniers and those claiming to have proof that NASA faked the Moon landings. "

+ 14 - 2 | § ¶If programming languages were religions...

 If programming languages were religions... is funny.  And surprisingly accurate.