High-Speed Rail Is NOT Dead After Budget Fart

Twitter is great for a lot of things:

• Kim Kardashian non-sequiturs.
• Helping assholes make money even after everyone knows they are assholes (Charlie Sheen).
• Spam.
• Limited writing space.
• A false sense of community.

Did I say great? My bad. Twitter is terrible.

I guess this is why it comes as no surprise that it is not a great source for accurate information about real-world issues. The most recent panic that Twitter has caused is through inaccurate reporting of what has been killed by the most recent Federal Budget nonsense.

Contrary to popular Tweets, highspeed rail is not dead in the water. In fact, the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) will soon be dealing out a cool $2 billion in federal HSR grants for projects around the nation.

So the money is definitely still there. The trick is making sure that local politicians don't go screwing the pooch and not pursuing the money in a cheap political ploy to give the illusion that they are pursuing other avenues of job creation, which is totally misguided, short-term thinking.

Lets not forget that fuel prices are going to continue to rise at a quicker pace in the coming years, and alternative forms of transportation will be necessary.

If all of my rambling above hasn't convinced you that high-speed rail is alive and necessary, then you leave me no choice but to pursuade you with a picture of Thomas the Train.

Texas Cities Get More Electric Vehicle Charging

NRG Energy (editors note: I get it!) has announced that they are going to be installing 70 EV charging stations in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area and 50 more in Houston by the end of next year, which is exciting considering Texas's traditional focus on oil.

NRG has holdings in wind, solar, and nuclear energy which is good considering one of the complaints about electric vehicles is that a majority of the electricity that will be used to power these vehicles is coming from dirty sources such as coal.

Yes, I realize that nuclear isn't completely clean and has risks which have become painfully apparent with the happenings in Japan, but I still maintain that it is a better technology than coal which essentially poisons everything it touches.

The only lame part of this story is the fact that NRG is planning on calling these stations "freedom stations." Nothing against freedom, but seriously? So weak.

In any event, the EV's success is going to be initially determined by the southern and western states which all have ideal climates for EV operation (warm, dryish, not too many hills). Because of this, it is good to see that cities are getting ahead of the curve and providing a charging infrastructure for the initial adopters of these vehicles.

Sunday Comics

Not quite a comic today, but this is my blog and I still found this comical, so deal with it, nerds.

For only $800 you could be the proud owner of a bike that is guaranteed to have hipsters everywhere telling you "I knew of this before you did."

Aside from the initial ridiculous look and about a 80% kill-rate when you hit a pothole, I kind of want one.

The Finer Things: Solar-Powered Backpack

I spend a good amount of time talking about how renewable initiatives and sustainable lifestyles will ultimately save money, mainly because that is the only way that these things are going to take hold in mainstream America/R.O.W.

However, lets face it, I'm high maintenance and I like the finer things in life. Those of you that know me totally know this is true seeing that I dine exclusively at Subway and wear my ripped jeans whenever I can get away with it.

So OBVIOUSLY this new item that is hitting the market caught my eye:

Ralph Lauren solar-powered backpack.

For only $800 dollars, this little ditty can be yours. Finally, I can promote clean energy and my cutting edge fashion-sense all in one move.

What's that, you say? You are wondering how much power this provides? Enough for your iPad 2, suckah!

The bag zaps up a 3.45-watt current, which charges a small device in two to three hours when the sun is at full strength.

Did I say iPad? I meant iPhone, but Google's webcrawler doesn't pay as much attention to old products, and I like attracting all sorts of misguided webtraffic.

In all seriousness, having solar panels on your backpack, briefcase, or whatever is a cool idea and someday will definitely be a reality, but until panels are more efficient at extracting energy from the sun's rays, these things are pretty much worthless.