Peter’s Blog

There is something so inspiring reading about and seeing this house. It’s definitely the first modern/contemporary house I’ve seen in a while that I’d really want to live in.

Los Angeles’ carbon footprint is a light one — sort of - Los Angeles Times

“The Mississippi River roughly divides the country into high and low emitters,” it says. “In 2005, all but one of the 10 largest per capita emitters were located east of the Mississippi.”

Proof again of the inherent superiority of the West Coast! =)

I just got off the phone with Charles Schwab and I’m got some stuff to say.

First, I was shocked when the person helping me didn’t know how to answer my questions immediately. I had gotten so used to solving my problems within a minute of calling Schwab that I was honestly surprised to hear the woman say, “I don’t know. Let me check with someone here.” It didn’t help that she and her colleagues ended up having to wrestle with the system for almost 30 minutes to delete an automatic transfer, disconnecting me twice while I was on hold. That being said, they solved the problem, were very friendly and helpful, and offered me $100 for my ‘troubles’. Now that’s how to ensure customer satisfaction! (more…)

#91 San Francisco « Stuff White People Like

Though they live in a world class city, San Franciscans have a crippling inferiority complex about New York and even hinting at that will make them very sad or very defensive.Fortunately, there is a fool-proof method for quickly returning the conversation to a positive, trust-building tone. No matter how much you have offended someone from San Francisco, you can always make them feel better by asking them how they feel about Southern California.

Face value | Mr High-speed Europe | Economist.com

TGV accounts for only one-third of SNCF revenues, but its fat margins lifted the railway to a profit of €695m in 2006, after fees paid to RFF, the track owner, are taken into account. How do the TGVs make so much money when so many railways struggle? Mr Pepy points out that a double-decker TGV can make two round trips between Paris and the south or west of France every day, carrying about a thousand passengers on each leg. The combination of size and speed brings economies of scale, boosted further by the route through Strasbourg to Germany opened last summer, and the new high-speed Eurostar link to London.

French railways stand out in Europe not only because they manage to turn a profit, but because they remain solidly in the public sector while doing so. Instead of conflict between politicians and managers, there is a clear division of responsibility. French towns and regions now pay SNCF to run less glamorous local services or even extend TGV services on slower lines into the depths of Brittany. Since the regions pay, they, rather than the railway, decide where and when the local trains run. This keeps the politicians off the backs of Mr Pepy and Anne-Marie Idrac, his chairman. It also keeps politics out of the railway, since no party would dream of privatising SNCF—sparing France the agonies that Britain and Germany have faced over privatisation.

I wonder if SNCF’s TGV group’s profitability includes tracks funded by the French government. Assuming that RFF doesn’t rent the tracks to them at a loss, I guess so. If this is true, this makes me more optimistic for the California high speed rail project. I love the idea but have been worried that there was no pay the costs for the infrastructure (part of me figures that it’s fine for the state to eat the cost regardless). However, if the TGV group can make over a $1 billion a year, then there’s hope for t.

And, if you’re interested, here are some takes on the California high speed rail proposal. First, a government funded video, complete with soothing female voice:

Check out those garish blue and yellow paint schemes! I think Tyler Brûlé needs to turn his attention to the trains’ design. I like one of the YouTube comments for the video:

The only problem, why would you want to go to Sacramento?

=)
Of course, there are also the haters. Some say the rail system will destroy wildlife, some think costs will balloon out of control, and some love the idea but don’t thinking it’ll ever be built. That may be true, as the main bond issue keeps getting pushed back as the state has financial problems.

BLDGBLOG has a really nice interview with Kim Stanley Robinson. A lot of the interview talks about utopian ideas and how he’s continually tried to rehabilitate them in his writing. Some early examples, and not mentioned in the interview, are the books in his Wild Shore trilogy. I read and enjoyed Pacific Edge, and the other two, The Gold Coast and The Wild Shore, also look good. Speaking of KSR, Escape From Kathmandu is also quite good.

Robert asked me to take his busted iPhone in for service, so I figure I might as well widen the call: does anyone in Amsterdam want help with an iPhone, whether buying one or getting one repaired? I’ll be in Silicon Valley from December 14 to January 8 and would be glad to help out.

There aren’t significant differences between northern and southern California, so naturally we fixate on the little things: we hate that they call the freeway “the 101″, while our dedication to the word hella is looked down upon. For those who didn’t know, it means “very” or “a lot”. Well, it’s totally unrelated, but the Dutch word hele/heel (pronounced something like hale-uh/hale) has a similar meaning. So there you go, the Dutch have been influencing Northern California’s English. =)

Hillary Clinton on the Daily Show in 2003:

Death Penalty Focus is a group I’ve been following for a while on their email list and I really admire their work. Mostly (completely?) based in California, they work to end the death penalty. They sponsor lectures, protests, letter writing campaigns and more. I highly encourage you to join the group and support their work to end the death penalty in California.