I live in MA. I use to commute through that mess called downtown Boston (by car a number of years, and by train for many years). Imagine what could have been accomplished if the billions (or less) was invested in a well planned and efficient commuter train system. The subway is a piece of junk. You need a freakin' umbrella UNDERGROUND during a rainstorm. I wonder when the ceiling is going to collapse. Most stations are a total eyesore. DC's subway system is a dream in comparison. Ever try the commuter rail system? The thing runs infrequently at best, and is packed to the teeth. Just imagine.. a train with every seat full, and passengers standing in the isles like sardines. Its fun, especially when the guy you are sitting next to stinks to high heaven.
I was in Japan a couple of times over the past few years. Now.. thats a well oiled commuter system. Their trains are clean, efficient, and more environmentally friendly than these loud diesel spewing smoke machine Amtrak monsters they use. Most of all, the trains are FAST and ON TIME. Their schedules are like clockwork, no and's or's or butt's. If it says it'll be there every 3 minutes.. a train is there every 3 minutes. Boston's train sytem sucks so bad, they had to put in a refund policy. If your train is 20.. yes thats TWENTY minutes late, you'll get your one way fare refuned. Whee. So generous.Did I mention? I was chronically late at least twice a month due to a broken down commuter train. That includes the other some thousands of other commuters that were delayed too. Every summer.. get a nice hot day, BLAM. Dead train. Ever sit in a train for 1 hour with no air condidioning? It gets up to like 100 degrees+. That consistently happens.
Now.. by the time they finish the Big Dig, the sprawl growing outside of the city will proportionately increase automobile traffic. By the time they are done, they'll need to expand once again. So when are we suppose to see any benefit?
OK.. one good thing. My company moved away from the city. About 1 hour west. I now live in the sticks and have a nice commute. The day I moved was the happiest day of my life.:)
Oh by the way.. my father worked for the MBTA for a number of years.. and my wife's cousin works for the rail lines in Japan around Kobe/Osaka. Ever hear of a train that senses the number of passengers onboard, and automatically adjusts the airconditioning systems appropriately? Well.. they have it in Japan.
I think before asking if other 'intelligent' life exists in the universe.. we need to define what intelligence is. If it can be defined. Are we truly intelligent? We as humans define our own intelligence. Who's to say that little white mice hold more intelligence than we do and us humans may be an experiment of theirs?:) Ok ok.. too much Hitchikers Guide. Still, are humans truly intelligent? If we encounter a higher or different intelligence, how will we recognize it? Does an ant look up at our big feet and say 'look, he's more intelligent than I am'. No. They do their thing, we do ours. Sometimes we step on them and we don't think twice about it. Whats to say some other more intelligent organism will come into our midst. We'll be too lowly to even recognize that something more advanced is present, and they'll just step on us as they go by. Not thinking twice about our so-called intelligence. In our perception we may explain the event in some different term that we can understand. Maybe humans sneeze when a more advanced lifeform comes near. Maybe we don't see them because we just aren't able to see them. For example, we react with a sneeze. Maybe i'm shooting a bit far here.. but maybe we have already encountered something that could be defined as 'a higher lifeform' but we were too lowly to recognize it. Our perception of the universe it limited by our senses and our knowledge. If our senses and knowledge are limited. Whats to say that we aren't missing something?
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I live in MA. I use to commute through that mess called downtown Boston (by car a number of years, and by train for many years). Imagine what could have been accomplished if the billions (or less) was invested in a well planned and efficient commuter train system. The subway is a piece of junk. You need a freakin' umbrella UNDERGROUND during a rainstorm. I wonder when the ceiling is going to collapse. Most stations are a total eyesore. DC's subway system is a dream in comparison. Ever try the commuter rail system? The thing runs infrequently at best, and is packed to the teeth. Just imagine.. a train with every seat full, and passengers standing in the isles like sardines. Its fun, especially when the guy you are sitting next to stinks to high heaven.
:)
I was in Japan a couple of times over the past few years. Now.. thats a well oiled commuter system. Their trains are clean, efficient, and more environmentally friendly than these loud diesel spewing smoke machine Amtrak monsters they use. Most of all, the trains are FAST and ON TIME. Their schedules are like clockwork, no and's or's or butt's. If it says it'll be there every 3 minutes.. a train is there every 3 minutes. Boston's train sytem sucks so bad, they had to put in a refund policy. If your train is 20.. yes thats TWENTY minutes late, you'll get your one way fare refuned. Whee. So generous.Did I mention? I was chronically late at least twice a month due to a broken down commuter train. That includes the other some thousands of other commuters that were delayed too. Every summer.. get a nice hot day, BLAM. Dead train. Ever sit in a train for 1 hour with no air condidioning? It gets up to like 100 degrees+. That consistently happens.
Now.. by the time they finish the Big Dig, the sprawl growing outside of the city will proportionately increase automobile traffic. By the time they are done, they'll need to expand once again. So when are we suppose to see any benefit?
OK.. one good thing. My company moved away from the city. About 1 hour west. I now live in the sticks and have a nice commute. The day I moved was the happiest day of my life.
Oh by the way.. my father worked for the MBTA for a number of years.. and my wife's cousin works for the rail lines in Japan around Kobe/Osaka. Ever hear of a train that senses the number of passengers onboard, and automatically adjusts the airconditioning systems appropriately? Well.. they have it in Japan.
I think before asking if other 'intelligent' life exists in the universe.. we need to define what intelligence is. If it can be defined. Are we truly intelligent? We as humans define our own intelligence. Who's to say that little white mice hold more intelligence than we do and us humans may be an experiment of theirs? :) Ok ok.. too much Hitchikers Guide. Still, are humans truly intelligent? If we encounter a higher or different intelligence, how will we recognize it? Does an ant look up at our big feet and say 'look, he's more intelligent than I am'. No. They do their thing, we do ours. Sometimes we step on them and we don't think twice about it. Whats to say some other more intelligent organism will come into our midst. We'll be too lowly to even recognize that something more advanced is present, and they'll just step on us as they go by. Not thinking twice about our so-called intelligence. In our perception we may explain the event in some different term that we can understand. Maybe humans sneeze when a more advanced lifeform comes near. Maybe we don't see them because we just aren't able to see them. For example, we react with a sneeze. Maybe i'm shooting a bit far here.. but maybe we have already encountered something that could be defined as 'a higher lifeform' but we were too lowly to recognize it. Our perception of the universe it limited by our senses and our knowledge. If our senses and knowledge are limited. Whats to say that we aren't missing something?