Don't miss the train

The Ghan is Australia's main north-south train, but you want to ride INSIDE it.

When I was in Australia last November, I was very excited to take the country's premier long-distance trains, the Indian Pacific and the Ghan and chronicled my journey here in my blog.

The journeys were fabulous, despite my sitting up in my seat for up to three nights at a time, and a great way to see the Outback without necessarily roughing it. I particularly liked the short whistle stops, but made sure as heck I was back at the train on time -- I didn't want to get stranded in the middle of some Outback town without my luggage -- so I made every effort to get back on that train.

I'm not sure I would have gone the route of Chad Vance, however. According to the BBC, Vance, a fellow American who took the Ghan, found the train pulling away after a stop in Port Augusta -- without him on it. Vance, 19, ran after the train, banged on the door and windows without response, then hung onto a stairwell for about two-and-a-half hours as the train sped through the Outback at about 70 mph.

Speaking of his May 28 journey in the Adelaide Advertiser, Vance said, "I was worried I wasn't going to survive. If I'd fallen off at that speed and hit the nasty-looking rocks below, I don't think I would have made it."

After hours of exposure from the wind and cold, Vance's lips were blue according to the conductor who finally noticed him and pulled the train's emergency brake.

I was extremely paranoid about being left behind when I rode Great Southern Railway's trains in Australia. When I was in Broken Hill, for example, I carefully noted the time the train was to depart and timed my walk so I would be back at the train 15 minutes before scheduled departure time, just to be safe. When I was in Kalgoorlie, I got back 45 minutes early -- both because the town shuts down early and I wanted to blog from the train station.

After reading Vance's story, I'm glad I did.

SamTrans may cut service by 15 percent in face of $30 million deficit

SAN CARLOS, Calif. -- The San Mateo County Transit District faces an unexpected $30 million budget deficit and may have to cut service by up to 15 percent as soon as September, transit officials said Wednesday night.

Chief Operating Officer Chuck Harvey told the district's Citizens Advisory Committee that the economic downturn, lower sales tax revenues and a cut in state transit subsidies have caused an unprecedented budget shortfall for SamTrans. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week cut the transit subsidy for the next three to five years after a number of budget initiatives failed in May's special election.

"I certainly wish I was here to talk with you tonight with better news," Harvey told the CAC. "This is an evolving issue that is literally changing hourly."

(Disclaimer: Your blogger is a member of the SamTrans CAC.)

While no fare increase is on the horizon, Harvey said, the possibility exists that SamTrans -- which just raised its base fare by 25 cents in February -- may need to ask for one in Fiscal Year 2011. Harvey stated that a fare increase would only improve revenue by a couple million dollars -- a pittance in face of a $30 million deficit. Service cuts are more effective, said the SamTrans COO.

"We don't want to balance our budget on the back of our riders," Harvey (right, at podium) said.

SamTrans staff will go before the district's board of directors next Wednesday to ask them to schedule a public hearing and a number of public meetings in July, with the board making a recommendation on cuts in August. Any changes would likely take place sometime in the third quarter, Harvey said.

"We simply cannot survive as an agency with a $30 million deficit," Harey said. "This causes us to make some difficult choices now."

The board could choose to cut service by less than the 15 percent staff is planning for, Harvey said, and any changes in bus service would also be reflected in similar cuts in paratransit services. According to Harvey, the agency would also reorganize its administrative side, with job cuts to senior staff and administrative personnel.

Harvey said it is too early to point out any specific cuts, but noted that if the board recommends the full 15 percent cut, lines 295, 342 (which Harvey said is the least cost-effective line in the system, with an average of 140 riders spread over 20 daily runs) and most express services would be completely eliminated. Other lines would see a reduction in service frequency.

But ridership numbers cannot be the sole determining factor in the cuts, Harvey said, thanks to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which seeks to "fairly" distribute transit resources among the entire population.

"We can't reduce service based simply on mathematics," Harvey said. "I can't tell you what impact (the deficit) will have on both SamTrans and Caltrain."

Target misses the ... well

Max Fleischer's Superman cartoons from the early 1940s are classics in the superhero animation field, in fact probably being the best big screen adaptation of the comics field until 1978's Superman: The Movie.

The realistic rotoscoped animation and stylized framing came soon after Fleischer's 1939 adaptation of Gulliver's Travels, also an early animated classic are a visual treat. Superman battles such adversaries as Japanese saboteurs, mummies and various underworld baddies in a series of tense pulp-like adventures geared toward the adult viewer -- complete with damsels in distress, high tension and fairly intense action scenes.

In fact, the back of the recent DVD release of the 17 cartoons includes a prominent disclaimer stating that: "Superman: The Max Fleischer Cartoon Collection is intended for the adult collector and is not suitable for children."

So where does the Target in Colma, Calif., keep the DVDs?
Right next to the Sesame Street and Richard Scary videos.

Florida is hot

No posts lately, mainly because I've been on vacation in Florida for a week, with no Internet access other than my iPhone, which is difficult to type long sequences with. In fact, I am using said device right now to post from the Tampa International Airport. I'll put up a blog post with some details of my great time when I return to California. Cheers!

Sotomayor on short list for the Court

Every once in a while I try to post something here, thinking I'm the only one that it's occurred to, that I'm the only one who remembered some obscure fact.

So it happened last week when I heard that US Supreme Court Justice David Souter (above right) would soon be retiring. Among the names discussed as a possible replacement was US Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The New York jurist would click just about every important demographic box that Barack Obama wants -- she's Latina, a woman and my attorney wife says the Second Court of Appeals, on which Sotomayor presides, is fairly liberal in reputation.

When I heard that Sotomayor's name was on Obama's short list, I remembered one more thing: she basically ended the devastating baseball strike of 1994-1995.

Sotomayor (pictured at right) issued an injunction stating that owners over-reached in unilaterally eliminating the then-current free agency and arbitration systems in 1995 -- a statement that led to the players going back to work under the previous contract until a new one could be negotiated later that year. An article in the New York Times soon after pointed out Sotomayor as a rising star in the judical world, and for some reason it stuck with me and I immediately recognized her name when i heard it over the air on NPR.

I also remembered her role in ending the baseball strike, and was surprised that none of the media outlets I'd seen had listed that among her accomplishments. In fact, I though maybe I had mis-remembered until I double-checked online. So I got the idea for this blog entry thinking I'd have a big scoop -- until I decided to check online and saw that it's been covered ad nauseam (such as here and here).

Ah well. Anyway, I know next-to-nothing about Sotomayor's views on First Amendment rights, abortion, the Equal Protection Clause, etc. But I do know she helped bring back baseball in a time when I needed it -- when I had moved to a new city and started a new life, but needed something familiar to latch onto. For that, Sotomayor will forever have my gratitude.

(Update: Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 8:53 a.m. -- AP is reporting Obama has picked Sotomayor for the Court. Did I call it, or what?)

Attack of the zombie ants

In the latest episode of "Science gone mad (but in a cool way):"

The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported Monday that a new strategy is being used to combat that all-too common Texas pest, the fire ant -- turning them into zombies whose heads fall off.

Apparently, fire ants are "The mean bastards of the ant world," and cause huge amounts of carnage. As stated in an Associated Press story, "The biting, territorial fire ants cost the Texas economy about $1 billion annually by damaging electrical equipment, according to a Texas A&M study. They can also threaten young calves."

Scientists are combating the six-legged red scourge by introducing phorid flies, natives of South America. Per the Star-Telegram: "The flies "dive-bomb" the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior."

With no brain, the ant wanders aimlessly for about two weeks, at which point the maggot emerges as a fly, then looks for new ants to lay eggs on.

Sounds good, but is anyone worried that this might take on echoes of The Simpsons episode "Bart the Mother," where some imported lizards, to the delight of the public, eliminate Springfield's pigeon problem, but then become a nuisance themselves? Principal Skinner comes up with a plan to then bring in lizard-eating snakes, then snake-eating gorillas to take care of them, and then "winter will take care of the rest."

A silent Arrival

A couple weeks ago, just before reading Laika, I took the opportunity to pick up Shaun Tan's 2006 graphic novel The Arrival from the library.

Claire bought The Arrival as a gift for her cousin, who at the time was exploring her family's immigration from China, about a year ago. While it looked intriuging laying on our floor prior to the gift-giving, I never bothered to pick it up as I literally judged the book by its cover. The sepia-toned cover of a man looking at what appeared to be a small alien made me think of it as a sci-fi novel, and I avoided it. Mistake.

In the book, we follow an unnamed immigrant who begins a new life. He starts off saying goodbye to his family in what seems a familiar (perhaps Eastern European) land at the turn of the last century. As he crosses the ocean, we start to see a little bit of strangeness. His fellow passengers, for example, seem a motley bunch. They dress unusually (compared to our immigrant) and are not at all ethnically homogenous. As the ship approaches the new country, we see unusual, unidentifiable birds fly by. The ship comes into a port dominated by strange statues, wild architecture and populated by strangely dressed people of an indeterminate race. We follow the immigrant around in his explorations where even the alphabet is strange, where the food seems unusual and people keep what seem to be aliens as pets. We are as disoriented as the immigrant, and that's the point.

Oh yes, there's not a single written word in the book. The story is completely art-driven.

I caught on pretty quick to The Arrival's main twist: the fantastical creatures and landscapes are simply meant to represent a new immigrant's disorientation in a strange land. But that's fine, it's not meant to be a Sixth Sense-type reveal and I certainly don't think it's a spoiler to talk about it. The beauty in Tan's approach is that had the artist taken the straightforward approach of realistically showing an immigrant going about his business in 20th Century America or Australia, we wouldn't empathize as much with the protagonist because we wouldn't feel the same sense of disorientation the immigrant feels.

As for the other distinguishing feature of the book, silent comics have been around for decades. The first one I remember reading was 1986's Marvel Fanfare No. 29, a fun John Byrne Hulk story that had been pulled from the regular series due to Jim Shooter's editorial interference (despite continuing Byrne's underrated split-Hulk storyline and having a key appearance in the ongoing line-wide Scourge story). Marvel again went silent in December 2001, with "'Nuff Said!" -- a nearly line-wide run of silent comics named after Stan Lee's famous catchphrase. That event was a mixed bag, but did reveal some gems.

The trick works well in The Arrival. Tan's art, though it looks like it was sketched with charcoal, is crystal clear. Tan is a good storyteller, with a clear panel flow. Despite the intentionally unfamiliar surroundings and backgrounds, I never once had trouble following what was going on. The immigrant's adjustment to his new home, his search for work and his quest to reunite with his family are all well-documented despite nary a sound effect.

(Below: No words, no problem.)

The Arrival is a fine addition to one's graphic novel library. It has a unique style which combines both extreme realism and the fantastic, often in the same panel. Tan's work will appeal to anyone with an interest in the struggles of the immigrants which made up this country.

(Update: Aug. 28, 2009. Upon further reflection, I now recall that Marvel Fanfare 29 is not completly silent, it just includes long stretches of art without dialogue. The story is still notable, however, in that it is composed entirely of splash pages.)

Une taille pour Sarkozy

Gracieuseté de dailymail.co.uk.

Pauvre Nicolas. Il veut vraiment être un grand garçon.

Le Huffington Post est un "court" sur l'article Sarkozy debout sur son tiptoes pour réduire la différence de hauteur entre sa jolie femme, Carla Bruni, et les Obamas. Comme le Daily Mail. Détendez-Nic.

Not just another dead dog story (Or, Fictional History, Part 3)

About a year ago, I checked out Matthew Brzezinski's "Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age" from the library. The book richly detailed the early Soviet space program and gave a brief insight into the life of Sergel Korolev, the USSR's "Chief Designer." While a good introduction, I felt I didn't have a great insight into Korolev's mindset.

I recently found some in an unexpected place: Nick Abadzis' graphic novel "Laika." This was another case of "Fictional History" (or, in other words, "History") coming to the forefront, which I have written about a couple times before, including Louis Riel's comic-strip biography.

History, as I wrote, is determined by those who write about it -- with the author's personal impressions unavoidably influencing the outcome. "Laika" is no different, and in fact fictionalizes the story more than most, but it at least is up-front about doing so. The story of the eponymous Laika, a stray from the streets of Moscow who in 1957 became the first mammal to orbit the Earth (barring any alien abductions), the graphic novel gives Laika -- and Korolev -- interesting back stories and puts them on parallel paths that fatefully intersect.

Left and below: In one of the books more illuminating scenes, Korolev explains his motivations to the dog he will send to an uncertain fate. (Click to enlarge.)

Since Laika's story is on the historical record, I don't think it's really spoiling the ending to say that Laika eventually meets the same fate as "Old Yeller," "Sounder" and countless other literary dogs. But Abadzis does a good job in showing how the stories of Korolev, Laika and animal trainer Yelena Dubrovsky (whom I believe is a fictional composite character) interrelate in the grand scheme of things and how all contributed to the growth of man's knowledge. The end of the novel is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful despite what happens to its main character.

The art is simple, but works really well in terms of establishing the cold Russian winters, the urban Moscow streetscapes and the steppes of Kazakhstan where the story takes place. Abadzis doesn't make it too cartoony. While dogs are shown talking among themselves, they do not talk directly (outside a brief dream sequence) to the humans, who have realistic, adult conversations about the topic on hand.

The Swedish-born Abadzis won an Eisner Award (the comics' equivalent of the Oscars) in 2008 for "Best Teen Graphic Novel," and I think that audience will respond to the deep storytelling of "Laika" well.

While the morality of using animals for such experiments is both then and now a topic of controversy, all the main characters are presented sympathetically. Quite refreshing to my eyes was the lack of Cold War ideology presented in the novel. While it is very clear that Nikita Kruschev (who appears in a few panels) is backing the Soviet space program as a propaganda coup against the United States, the scientists are shown to be working for science as best they could under the limitations of a party system.

While the otherwise-excellent Louis Riel biography might have been a little more realistic and its subject a little more historically important (at least to Canada), "Laika" is a more personal story and one that I think resonated more -- and I say that as someone who doesn't like "dead dog stories."

Take me out to the ballgame

Barry Zito threw seven shutout innings.

Yesterday, I got tired of sitting about and took advantage of my now-standard long weekend to go to the ballpark for the first time this season. In doing so, I was able to have a surprisingly cheap and fun afternoon out as the San Francisco Giants hosted the San Diego Padres.

The Giants have something they call "variable pricing," which is similar to airline pricing: the higher the demand for a game, the more-expensive a ticket. Conversely, the lower the demand, the lower the price. Seeing as the game Wednesday was the lowest-attended (with 26,593 tickets sold) in the 10-season history of AT&T park, I'm not surprised I was able to snag a bleacher seat for just $7 from the automated ticket machine outside the park. The same seat for next homestand's tilt against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Giants' traditional rival, is going for $15.

To top off the bargain, there was a one-day only promotion that if I flashed my Visa Signature card at the Visa booth, I'd get a voucher for a free garlic fries and soda. Having done so, I only had to buy a hot dog (a ballpark-reasonable $5.75 for a "colossal dog") and I was set. With the low attendance, there were plenty of open seats in the lower area and I retreated there to avoid the sun.

The game itself was one that myself and other baseball purists would love, but non-fans would probably think was boring. I saw some great, tense pitching as the Giants beat the Padres, 1-0. Bengie Molina pinch-hit a ground-rule double in the 10th inning (see, I even got a little extra baseball at no added cost!) in a game the San Francisco Chronicle called "gripping."

I almost had a third great bargain, as the game moved along crisply and I thought I might be able to use the same $1.50 Muni ticket that I used to get to the park on the way back. As fast as the game was (2 hours, 44 minutes -- for an extra-inning game), I just barely missed the 3:30 p.m. expiration of my transfer. Oh well, it was still a very good deal.

I fled to the lower bowl more to avoid the sun (and skin cancer) than to improve my view.

A day at the beach

Ian at Pacifica State Beach, April 20, 2009.

There was record-breaking heat in the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, prompting a heat advisory, in fact. So Ian and I made lemonade from lemons, metaphorically speaking, and went to the beach.

Ian's school is literally about two blocks from the beach,as I've outlined before. So after grabbing him, we headed down to the shore. As an indicator of the heat (86F/30C, but it felt hotter), we had to circle the lot three times to get a parking spot.

The boy wanted to take off his shoes and run on the beach as soon as we got on the sand, only to tearfully beg me to pick him up as soon as he realized the sand was blazing. But once we got to the tide line, Ian had a blast. He ran in and out of the small waves (the tide was receding) and seemed to get a great thrill from throwing small rocks out to sea.

We were covered in fine, black sand afterward but had a good time over about half an hour. But I'm already done with summer and it's still only early spring. Bring on the April showers!