newspeak

Canada’s Rail System May Have Peaked…in 1968 – Technology – The Atlantic Cities.

Max speed 170 MPH. 

Acela (today): 150 but reality 80 MPH.

Via rail, the rickety rail that strings the big cities on the east together, less than 100 MPH.

Why? Read. It’s a nothing new but it’s always an bitter pill–that hope has been, for the moment, stalled. Not dashed.

Samuel L Jackson in Obama campaign ad – video | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Fun, but not as much as I was hoping. But the point is well taken

Okay, best book review/interview of the last couple of weeks has got to be the 17 Sept. Slate Lexicon Valley interview, by the great Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo of Geoffrey Nunberg’s latest, The Ascent of the A-word”.

Confession: I’ve become a regular listener (during rowing) of Slate’s Daily podcasts. The moderators are good, though I can’t quite put Emily Bazelon’s squeaky voice into the fiercely intelligent frame of her writing.