musky

[i did a search for the thread "General DOT/FHWA News and Discussion" but I only get a blank page. Yet there are other threads from the same date still in existence. No prob - moving on.] *********************************************** DOT 23-09 Contact: Jill Zuckman, Tel.: (202) 366-4570 Thursday, February 26, 2009 U.S. Department of Transportation Unveils 2010 Budget Framework The U.S. Department of Transportation today unveiled the framework of its proposed fiscal year 2010 budget. Additional budget details will be available in April of this year. President Obama has laid out a fiscally responsible blueprint for 2010 and the Administration will work closely with the Congress over the next few months to determine the details for funding surface transportation. “This Administration inherited a difficult problem – a system that can no longer pay for itself,” Secretary LaHood said. “We are looking at every option to solve it, but we are not going to be ready overnight.” The budget proposal does provide a broad framework that commits funds for sustainable solutions for surface transportation, explores options to make the nation’s communities more livable through increased funding for public transit, supports development of a high speed rail network across the country and supports the Next Generation Air Transportation System to modernize the air traffic control system. “This budget is a start toward setting the nation’s transportation system on a sustainable path,” LaHood added. To provide Americans a 21st Century transportation system, the Administration has proposed a five-year $5 billion high-speed rail state grant program. This funding will build on the $8 billion down payment in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and marks President Obama’s commitment to provide Americans a practical and environmentally sustainable alternative to flying or driving. The budget provides approximately $800 million for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, a long-term effort to improve the efficiency, safety, and capacity of the air traffic control system. The 2010 budget supports moving from a ground-based radar surveillance system to a more accurate satellite-based surveillance system, development of more efficient routes through the airspace, and improvements in aviation weather information. The Administration is committed to maintaining small communities’ access to the National Airspace System. The budget provides a $55 million increase over the Department’s 2009 level to fulfill current program requirements as demand for subsidized commercial air service increases. To more transparently display program resources, the Administration proposes changing the budgetary treatment of transportation programs to show both budget authority and outlays as discretionary. The change will convey to the taxpayer the real costs of supporting the transportation infrastructure our nation needs. ###

^ Not so well. Leopard was not designed for the G4. Mine slowed down considerably after the upgrade. Before I handed it down to the offspring, I restored it to the previous version.

Thanks for taking charge, CD. I was all set to come, but I seem to have come down with the plague. Even as I type, my fingers feel like they are falling off.

Cleveland Cavaliers are talking with Phoenix Suns about acquiring Shaquille O'Neal Posted by bwindhor February 19, 2009 11:28AM TORONTO -- From the people around the league I am talking to today, the Cavs are one of the most aggressive teams at this point. They are convinced that they have an advantage as a buyer and do not want to let a chance slip past as teams everywhere are looking to sell. Several reliable sources have told me they have offered Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic (only $1 million guaranteed) for Shaquille O'Neal. The Suns may want to keep Amare Stoudemire but now have abandoned their plans to play slow down and Shaq is in the way. Also, it would save them millions next season because Wallace's contract actually decreases next season and Pavlovic is not fully guaranteed. This would be a massive transition for the Cavs, not exactly the sort of deal that doesn't alter the chemistry. I have no idea what it would do to the lineup but I do know Shaq has four championship rings, is having an All-Star season, has an expiring contract next year, and has an excellent relationship with LeBron James. More at http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/cavaliers/

ODOT plans a two-bridge solution for Inner Belt Posted by cpinckar February 12, 2009 03:30AM The Ohio Department of Transportation plans to reopen all lanes on the existing I-90 bridge, top, by the end of this year, following $10 million in repairs. Two five-lane Inner Belt bridges will span the Cuyahoga River by 2015, with construction set to begin next year. And both bridges could be brand new... To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: [email protected], 216-999-5079

February 9, 2009 Recent Senate Votes Confirmation of Eric H. Holder, Jr. to be Attorney General - Vote Confirmed (75-21, 3 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The Senate confirmed Eric Holder to be Attorney General. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Sen. George Voinovich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Recent House Votes Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (290-135, 8 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The House gave final approval to this bill that reauthorizes and expands the State Childrens Health Insurance Program. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio DTV Delay Act - Vote Passed (264-158, 10 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The House passed this bill that will delay the transition to digital television signals until June 12. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

February 2, 2009 Recent Senate Votes Confirmation of Timothy Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury - Vote Confirmed (60-34, 4 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The Senate confirmed Timothy Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Sen. George Voinovich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Sen. Sherrod Brown voted Not Voting......send e-mail or see bio Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (66-32, 1 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The Senate voted to reauthorize and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Sen. George Voinovich voted NO......send e-mail or see bio Sen. Sherrod Brown voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Recent House Votes Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (250-177, 6 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The House gave final approval to this wage discrimination measure. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (244-188, 1 Not Voting) http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] The House passed this $819 billion bill providing for additional 2009 fiscal year appropriations. http://images.capwiz.com/img/spacer.gif[/img] Rep. Dennis Kucinich voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

I would absolutely come on either day

It was a great book (all of Gaimen's are). Can't wait to see it.

Wow... love that website. Very useful

I am SO available for these boards... and capable

Its only Two years. Not something that is going to effect a neighborhood forever.

That is why I said "with some improvements." God, please tell me why ODT is spending money to add a third lane on && south of Independence. Why not add another lane to the ramps at the 77/490 interchange?

I leave downtown via 77>490>90>West Boulevard, and 77>490>71>West 25th (or the other way around) almost everyday. These routes work just fine and, with some improvements, would operate sufficiently enough as a detour for a couple of years while the bridge is replaced. On occasion I take the West Boulevard>Clifton>West Shoreway route. I have seen the backups and now leave earlier. Not very difficult if you ask me... but you didn't.

Why? It was well placed to coincide with New York Comic Con. Oh, I know. I said meant that as a good thing.

Four lanes of Inner Belt Bridge to close for repairs Posted by kturner February 05, 2009 13:26PM CLEVELAND — Inner Belt Bridge lanes will be closed tonight and Friday night so crews can widen an expansion joint on the west end of the bridge. The left two inbound, or east, lanes will close from 9 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. Friday. One lane will remain open. The left two outbound, or west, lanes will close from 9 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Saturday. One lane will remain open...

I found it amusing how much media coverage this got.

From the Google Earth Blog - http://www.gearthblog.com/ Google Earth 5 - Initial Reactions Google Earth 5 was released on Monday February 2nd. Overall, it appears the reaction globally has been very positive. Lots of excitement over the four major new features: Ocean, Recorded Tours, Historical Imagery, and Mars. Many other significant features have been discovered in the last two days especially for developers. Here are some notes on initial reactions so far to Google Earth 5: Installation - There have been some discussions in the past about the Google Earth installation process. When installing Google Earth (and many other Google applications), Google has been installing an application called "Google Updater" which runs on your machine in the background checking periodically for updates. It will automatically notify you when an update is available and give you the choice of installing updates. This applies to both Windows and the Mac versions of Google Earth now. Now, when you first download Google Earth from their web site, it notifies you about the application. Some people would prefer to just download the application itself and install it themselves. Overall, there have been few reports I've seen with other installation problems (considering the number of people installing GE). New User Interface - Google has made some changes to the look compared to GE 5. The most obvious being new buttons at the top, and new sliders for time animation, historical imagery, and record tours. I've seen some positive reactions to the more "Mac-like" look on the Mac. There haven't been any wide-spread complaints to date on the other changes. Historical Imagery - Probably the strongest general user reaction has been over the historical imagery. People are literally "wowed" by the ability to turn back the clock and look at places over time from an aerial perspective. But, I've also heard strong reactions in many other areas. Here are some highlights: Mars - probably the second-most popular addition is the Mars mode. This new feature seemed to surprise a lot of people. There have been other Mars virtual globes (WorldWind and Celestia). But, the new Google Mars has a lot of nice features and is rich with annotations, imagery, 3D terrain, and photos. I know several people in the space program who are thrilled with this new popular tool for Mars. Ocean - The most-anticipated new feature has also been very popular. Many people are thrilled to see such a popular application help raise awareness about the world's oceans and some of the threats to the ocean environment. I hope lots of people will go beyond the 3D bathymetry and explore the new "Ocean" layers which contain very important information about overfishing, rapidly melting ice at the poles, man-made environmental threats, and other issues facing the oceans. See this nice CNN story about the new GE 5's Ocean data. Recorded Tours - There are new tours coming out which are beginning to show the power of Recorded Tours. Anyone can make a recorded tour, but developers have new features that enable some amazing ways to demonstrate Google Earth to people. I'm expecting this will end up being the most used new feature in GE 5. Google also had Jimmy Buffet show up at their announcement and they produced a tour showing Jimmy Buffet's concert tour! For Google Earth developers, here are a few reactions: Changes to KML - to enable some of the new features in GE 5, Google had to make extensions to the standard KML. However, some have expressed concerns that Google has done this, saying it will be harder for other companies to adopt the standard if Google changes it. Google has heavily documented the changes, they say they've used provisions provided by the KML standard to make changes. And, they've updated libkml for the new features. I would expect they would like to see these new extensions become a part of the standard in a future update. Internal Browser - Google has improved the support of browser features in placemarks. You can now include iFrames, and most other features in placemarks. This means you can have more sophisticated HTML content and user interfaces inside Google Earth. I expect there will be some powerful new ways to interact with Google Earth as developers get a chance to take advantage of this new capability. One example is the new Mars easter egg with Meliza. Altitude Mode - there have been some concerns expressed about being able to render KML undersea (see discussion in comments to this post). Some files seem to work just fine, but developers are asking questions about the implementation. Record Tour - Lots of excitement by developers with the new Record Tour. Many of us have been waiting for some type of "scripted" capability to share experiences and show things to people with Google Earth. Many developers have lauded the new features and shown a lot of excitement about the possibilities. I'm sure there will be some initial issues as this is a new feature. But, I'm sure Google will listen and address shortcomings in future updates. Expect to see a lot from developers using this new powerful feature. Developers should also make sure to check out these posts: (GEB, OgleEarth 1, OgleEarth 2, GoogleGeoDeveloperBlog).

They also added updated ocean floor imagery. New View of Ocean Floor in Google Earth Google has released a new rendering of the ocean floors around the world. The ocean floor is colored to reflect the terrain features of the sub-sea surface. The new rendering is a bit higher resolution (much higher in places) and is presumably more accurate than the previous version. According to the copyright messages the new ocean floor is coming from "SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO". These entities are dedicated to getting the best ocean floor surface data they can. You don't have to do anything special to see the new ocean floor, just open up Google Earth (it's not visible in Google Maps yet). Unfortunately, the new ocean floor in Google Earth is NOT 3D - yet. This could be the first part of the release of new data for the rumored "Google Ocean". Hopefully, we'll see a 3D version someday. [UPDATE: As someone pointed out in the comments, some island atolls which had low resolution data look less "visible" in the new imagery. Particularly noticeable are the Maldives, also St. Helens, Montagu Island, and many other islands now show "floor" instead of the islands. I have to agree with the sentiment of the commenter. Although Google has tried to at least show those portions of the atolls which have above water presence. In my opinion it is very important to show satellite/aerial imagery any time you can see the undersea surface in addition to the land. If the bathymetry is visible through imagery, then show real photos! It will be helpful to mariners/boaters who use those waters who will then be able to see both undersea structure, and locations of anchorages (presence of other boats).] Here is a comparison of the old ocean floor (as currently seen with Google Maps) verses the new look in Google Earth (click on the image for a larger view comparison): http://www.gearthblog.com/images/images109/oceancompare2.jpg[/img] In some areas - like near the shore of Puerto Rico - the ocean floor imagery shows higher resolution terrain data than in other areas. But, what many of us would like to see is 3D bathymetry (terrain) data as well! It's all just a matter of time.

You've been Bosscocked!!! http://bosscocked.com/ ;D

Cool Site: Garfield minus Garfield http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/ Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

I really enjoy Polyphonic Spree

Why is that?

I'm really loving Soma.fm Particularly the Groove Salad station. I can't get enough of it.

I'm sure everyone has heard about the Christian Bale blow up recorded on a Hollywood set. Completely going off on one of the staff members who accidentally walked on to the set - I think it was the Director of Photography. Anyway, someone already has a song out about it. Edited by rob_1412 to remove link to YouTube video