What does it take to fund the construction of a new light rail system? I ask this because Las Vegas, Nevada, seems to be the perfect place to build a streetcar system--and yet they can't even keep a little "horizontal elevator" system running. Do such systems have to be built by the city administration? Or can private enterprise get the funding, permits, and traffic needed to make a new streetcar system work?

Ok, I went on a binge this weekend and watched a couple of classic train movies. First, "The General" with Buster Keaton, and then "The Train."

In the 1927 silent epic, Keaton is an engineer on the Reb side during the Civil War who is rejected by the army because engineers are valuable to the Cause. He loses the girl, but then gets her back. Or something. Who cares? There's tons of old steam train footage! Stunts, crashes, all sorts of train-related excitement. And it's available online.

The plot of "The Train" has something to do with saving French art from the nasty Nazis at the end of the war, but the important stuff is the train action. Lots and lots of pictures of the French railway system, with locomotive interior shots, details of lots of the operating practices, yard management, blown up engines... It's great!

Great action for steam train addicts! Some questions arise, however:

This is not a political topic! I'm trying to figure out the answer to what should be a pretty simple question: Did the French locomotives used in Panama in the 1880s during the initial canal construction burn coal or did they burn wood?

Lost in the argumentation about the extent of climate change, or the rate, or whose fault it is, is the point that there are THREE sides to the argument. The first side is the "accepting" side, made up of the community of people who take the IPCC conclusions as a scientific concensus and want to take actions based on that view. The second side is the "denial" side, made up of people who confuse science with politics and want to base actions on wishful thinking.

The third side takes the "things are a lot worse than is widely acknowledged" view. Doomsayers and pessimists, mostly, who are gradually pulling the IPCC conclusions in the dismal direction.

One of them is James Lovelock, inventor of the Gaia theory (perhaps a bit on the questionable side?) and also inventor of the instrument used to detect the Ozone hole over the Antarctic. In the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, his very, very pessimistic views get a good airing. Now I'm not sure whether the Rolling Stone counts as a part of the Mainstream Media (it does for a significant fraction of the American baby boom generation), but it is interesting to see that the "we're frigging doomed" conclusion is getting some press.

By 2100, Lovelock believes, the Earth's population will be culled from today's 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes -- Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

Rolling Stone Magazine

With the onset of cold weather, I'm interested in finding out how other ETers manage their home heating systems. Americans obviously have a reputation for overheating their houses, and I'd like to hear some real-life stories about this from the European viewpoint. (Or anybody, really.)

This is roughly what our furnace looks like:

Here in Colorado Springs we have now had a few nights where it's gotten below freezing outside, but so far our house has not dropped below 63F (17C). Our furnace uses natural gas and forced hot air circulation. So far we have left it off, and the goal is to make it to November 1st before giving in to temptation. Then we try to keep the house as cool as possible. Our thermostat is an "automatic setback" model with an electronic clock and calendar in it, and we set it so that the house is at 63F at night, 68F (20C) during the morning and evening when we're home, and 55F (13C) during the day.

How warm is it in your house?

The Gaza Strip has seen more clashes a day after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called for early elections to end an economic and security crisis.

Mortars were fired at Mr Abbas's office in Gaza City, and a 19-year-old woman was killed as rival Fatah and Hamas supporters clashed in the streets. A Hamas minister's convoy was attacked, as was a presidential guard base.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who heads a Hamas-led government, has said new elections could incite further unrest. "The Palestinian government rejects the call for holding early parliamentary elections because it is not constitutional and may lead to a large disturbance in the Palestinian territory," said Mr Haniya.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6187639.stm

Could someone explain this to me? I thought that one of the advantages of parliamentary style government was that you could call early elections. How does the Palestinian system work? I'm asking about the mechanics of the political system.

Britain's Prince Charles has decided to turn over a new leaf and become the Green Prince. Good for him!

Prince Charles has told some of his staff to use bicycles in the fight against global warming. He is even prepared to travel to London by commuter train from a station near Highgrove. Charles wants to be remembered as the "Green Prince" and is making a personal statement by planning a radical shake-up of his travel plans.

He intends to make more use of the royal train and has ordered his chauffeurs to leave their cars behind and travel by bicycle when they check arrangements ahead of his appointments in London. Charles has also told aides to find a more environmentally friendly fuel for his fleet of cars.

[ThisIsLondon]

What should his carbon footprint look like?

For that matter, what should our own carbon footprints look like?

The "clean coal" approach to electricity generation is moving ahead.

Xcel Energy is proposing to build the nation's first clean-coal power plant in Colorado that will capture carbon emissions--a move hailed as a breakthrough with major national implications.

The plant would use a system known as integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC, in which coal is baked under high pressure and temperature to produce a gas that burns more cleanly and efficiently than raw coal.

Here's somebody who needs to be introduced to Eurotrib.

"One of the most popular weblogs in France is called Vingt Sur Vingt, meaning 20 out of 20. The author, Cyrille De Lasteyrie, writes about movies, restaurants or jokes, and then rates them on a scale of 0 to 20.

The blog struck a chord with French readers and was named French blog of the year in 2005. But now, Mr De Lasteyrie has started a new blog aimed at a new audience, Americans."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4854484.stm

Audi made racing history on Saturday as its diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, becoming the first diesel car in the world to win a major sports car race. Audi used Sebring as a test for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, set for June 17-18.

Audi wants to use its diesel work in motorsport to increase its technology advantages in the commercial diesel engines. Every second Audi sold today is delivered with a TDI diesel engine.

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/03/audi_diesel_win.html

In America, almost the only diesels on the road are in big pickup trucks (used mostly for grocery store and daycare "pickup" runs) and in large commercial vehicles. In Europe, about half of new cars are diesels. An interesting contrast, and one that seems likely to narrow in coming years...

As has been reported in both the American and European press, Bush has proposed that the operation several East Coast shipping ports should be allowed to be controlled by a company that is based in the United Arab Emirates. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4737940.stm

This has set off a political firestorm--but the players are all confused about which side of the argument they should be on.

George W. Bush gave his state of the union address yesterday, and suggested that the U.S. should wean itself from foreign oil, setting a goal of substantial reduction in imports of the Middle East over the next decade. This has triggered an uproar from American Democrats, who say he's not proposing enough, from OPEC, who say he's proposing too much, and, surprizingly, from the E.U. President who says that it's unrealistic.

Is it possible that Bush's oilman friends have clued him in on the energy consumption issue? Is it possible that the U.S. may actually embark on an energy independence program?

A common theme at EuroTrib is exposing the folly of the current marketise-privatise-deregularise-everything drive in the EU, whose promoters point at the USA (and sometimes the UK) as role model. But we have neglected one type of argument from our arsenal: to point out that the model aint' so as our propagandists claim it to be. Hence the relevance of the diary below. _DoDo

The term "Anglo-Saxon Model" has been rejected by the ET community, but I couldn't help noticing these two articles in today's newspaper.

Colorado, and in particular rural Colorado, tends to be pretty conservative. Colorado Springs is the home of many of the most right-wing extremists in American politics, and the community in general is strongly on the side of individual liberty, self-sufficiency, and governmental non-interference in life and industry.

But, when someone's ox is about to be gored then they can change their stripes, to mangle a metaphor.

Let's see now, the price of oil on, what was it, the London market? for Brent crude? on January first?

Today: $56.11/bbl
asdf's prediction: I forget. Something around $60...

I'm looking forward to a New Year's present--unless some more cynical predictor got in there under me...

http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ONART&C=GenIn&ARTICLE_ID=244180& amp;p=7

(Updated, following polite suggestion by Jerome, who could have just deleted the diary.)

I'll probably get whumped for hijacking this title, but here's a current reading on the price of oil. Ironically, Jerome's first 100$ oil diary was in June.

At this point, just entering winter--when the risk is high because of the unpredictability of upcoming demand--oil futures are at the lowest since early summer.

"In London on Friday, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery eased also by nine cents to 54.76 dollars per barrel."
[AFP/Netscape News]

Trend? Or just a brief dip before the real crisis hits?

ANSWER is below!

Italy is celebrating the first anniversary of the EU constitution by issuing a new two-euro commemorative coin. The constitution was signed by EU leaders in Rome on 28 October 2004, but was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands several months later.

The new coin, issued this week, depicts the goddess Europa holding a pen over the text of the constitution.

?????

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4443318.stm

Seriously.

This is the really irrefutable difference between the USA and Europe - you Europeans have completely lost track of the underpinnings of Western Civilization. Across the European political spectrum your willingness to throw overboard more than 2000 years of cultural development is staggering - and not a little bit disturbing.

You have completely misread your history, and have concluded that since religion--according to your view--deals in absolutes, it must be completely eradicated from public life. By looking narrowly at the abuses of the medieval Catholic church, and completely ignoring and/or misinterpreting the progression from the ancient Greeks through the Protestant Reformation, you have lost track of the single most powerful force for good.

Instead of working towards religious freedom, and the establishment of an inclusive society that can accept differing philosophies and cultural values, your politicans work tirelessly to rub out anything that smells of public displays of philosophical thought. Your ban on headscarves and crosses is only the beginning. I suppose that next you will decide that  German barmaids must not expose their breasts during Oktoberfest. Oh, sorry, that already happened!

The current lack of tolerance in Europe, including on the left, is scary.

From the front page ~ whataboutbob

There have been a lot of predictions here at ET about how the sky is falling as far as the global oil supply is concerned. Chicken Little is running all over the village announcing that we're all going to freeze to death in the dark--if we don't starve first--because in only a matter of weeks the world will run out of oil.

But what do the experts think? Is this something we should worry about? Or is it just a case of a hysterical extrapolation of irrelevant production curves that doesn't add up to anything?

There's widespread frustration with America's wasteful attitude towards energy consumption and the environment in general. It's usually assumed that since the Democrats are the "leftist" party, they are therefore more in tune with environmental issues. And since the Republicans are in power, those issues will stay on the back burner, right?

Wrong.

In a recent discussion
http://www.eurotrib.com/comments/2005/10/29/04223/086/45#45
I suggested that worker mobility in Europe might be less than in the U.S.

Out of curiosity, perhaps a EuroTrib poll might be enlightening...