Regional rapid transit plan for Metro Detroit

While I wrote about the M1 Rail becoming the QLine a few months ago, it's been more than a year since I reported on a regional mass transit plan.  Yesterday, that plan, which has been in the works since last year's entry, was revealed at Lawrence Tech in Southfield.  WXYZ has the story in Rapid transit announcement made.

Local leaders are announcing a new push for regional rapid transit.

Adding the commuter train to Ann Arbor is a smart move.  I know that Ann Arborites are train riders.  When I took the train from Detroit (actually Pontiac) to Chicago, more than half the passengers got on and off at Ann Arbor.

Of course I approve.  What do other people in the area think?  WXYZ attempts to answer in Reaction to mass transit proposal.

Detroiters are reacting to the proposed mass transit proposal and tax.

Looks and sounds like I won't be the only person voting yes on the millage.  Here's to campaigning for it to pass.

Solar Impulse 2 in Allentown

Solar Impulse 2 left Dayton last week for Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Wochit News has the story in Solar-Powered Airplane Lands in Pennsylvania.

A solar-powered airplane has landed in Pennsylvania, about 17 hours after it took off from the Ohio hometown of America aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown. The plane's departure from Dayton was delayed as project officials checked for possible damage after fans that keep the mobile hangar inflated had a power failure.

On the way, the pilot had some fun snapping an extreme selfie, as ABC News reported.

Solar Impulse pilot Bertrand Piccard snapped a sky-high selfie as he cruised toward Pennsylvania during the 13th leg of the plane's journey around the world.

The Swiss adventurer was able to memorialize his time in the cockpit by using what appears to be an extremely long selfie stick held outside the window of the solar-powered plane.

While in Allentown, the plane is attracting lots of visitors, with The Morning Call reporting Solar Impulse 2 draws thousands for up close look at Allentown airport.  5,000 free tickets were distributed for a one-day-only open house; 3,800 people attended the event.  The paper also reported when "the plane will take off for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City as early as Thursday before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to land in Europe or Northern Africa."  Stay tuned.

ETA: Since I wrote the above, CBS in New York reported Solar-Powered Plane Set To Arrive At JFK Airport.  That should happen this evening, possibly after a flyover of the Statue of Liberty.  I'll have an update tomorrow or the day after.

Presidents on Memorial Day

For today's holiday, I'm going to do something more serious than last year's grilling over lava.  Instead, I'm harkening back to 2013's President Obama at Arlington for Memorial Day with Friday's Weekly Address: Remembering Our Fallen Heroes.

In this week’s address, President Obama solemnly reflected on the meaning of Memorial Day and recognized the sacrifices made by the American warriors who never made it back home.

That's not all.  ABC News brings its viewers Memorial Day | Presidents Honor the Fallen at Arlington National Cemetery.

Memorial Day 2016 | A look back at presidents on Memorial Day through the years.

Remember the serious reason for the holiday before lighting the grill.

Rabid Puppies infect 2016 Hugo nominees for movies and television

Last year's Hugo nominees for movies and television were marred by the efforts of two groups of reactionary fans--the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies--to influence the nominees by stuffing the ballots through slate voting.  I found both sets of nominees flawed, especially those for "Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)," i.e., movies, although not fatally so.  Just the same, it was enough to prompt me to nominate shows for the "Serious Kitten Awards" at We Hunted The Mammoth.

The same thing happened this year, except that the Rabid Puppies had an even stronger effect than the Sad Puppies, which made things worse.  As Mike Glyer wrote at File 770, the result was "Puppies all the way down" as "Vox Day’s Rabid Puppies slate initially placed 64 of its 81 recommendations on the final ballot."  I'll leave the analysis on the literary awards and fan awards to others;* like last year, I'll concentrate on how the slate affected the nominees for movies and television.

Here are the nominees for media from io9.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (2904 ballots)

• Avengers: Age of Ultron written and directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
• Ex Machina written and directed by Alex Garland (Film4; DNA Films; Universal Pictures)
• Mad Max: Fury Road written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller (Village Roadshow Pictures; Kennedy Miller Mitchell; RatPac-Dune Entertainment; Warner Bros. Pictures)
• The Martian screenplay by Drew Goddard, directed by Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions; Kinberg Genre; TSG Entertainment; 20th Century Fox)
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens written by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lucasfilm Ltd.; Bad Robot Productions; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Unlike last year, I think all of the nominees are worthy.  Only one of these, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," was purely a Rabid Puppies selection, but unlike "The Lego Movie," I think it's an acceptable nominee.  That doesn't mean I'd have put it on my ballot; instead, I'd have replaced it with "Jurassic World," which was the fifth movie on the list of six nominees for the Saturn Awards.  So, the Rabid Puppies didn't screw up the nominees in this category.  Besides, I doubt they'll win in the end.  "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was not on their slate, but I think it's the favorite.  The other strong contenders would be "Ex Machina" and "Mad Max: Fury Road," also not on their slate, and "The Martian," which would probably have been nominated without their help.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM) (2219 ballots)

• Doctor Who: “Heaven Sent” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay (BBC Television)
• Grimm: “Headache” written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, directed by Jim Kouf (Universal Television; GK Productions; Hazy Mills Productions; Open 4 Business Productions; NBCUniversal Television Distribution)
• Jessica Jones: “AKA Smile” written by Scott Reynolds, Melissa Rosenberg, and Jamie King, directed by Michael Rymer (Marvel Television; ABC Studios; Tall Girls Productions; Netflix)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: “The Cutie Map” Parts 1 and 2 written by Scott Sonneborn, M.A. Larson, and Meghan McCarthy, directed by Jayson Thiessen and Jim Miller (DHX Media/Vancouver; Hasbro Studios)
• Supernatural: “Just My Imagination” written by Jenny Klein, directed by Richard Speight Jr. (Kripke Enterprises; Wonderland Sound and Vision; Warner Bros. Television)

On the other hand, the Rabid Puppies had a stronger and more deleterious effect on the television nominees.  "Doctor Who" and "Jessica Jones" both belong here, but not the rest, which were all on the Rabid Puppies slate.  While I was pleasantly surprised last year by "Grimm" being nominated, that was tempered by the show coming in last place in last year's voting, losing to "No Award."  Ouch.  In addition, this season has not been as good as previous seasons, so even as a fan I can't support it.  As for "Supernatual," I'm a fan as well, but this show is getting long in the tooth and has seen better days.  Finally, "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic," while a good animated show, was pretty obviously put on the slate as a joke.

As for the shows that deserve to be nominated instead, I don't have to go any farther than the ones nominated for any of the categories in the 2016 Saturn Awards for Television plus "Penny Dreadful."  Any three of "Game of Thrones," "Outlander," "The 100," "The Expanse," "The Walking Dead," "Penny Dreadful," or even "The Strain" would be better than the three shows the Rapid Puppies got nominated.  Just the same, I expect the Puppies will lose out again, with the "Doctor Who" episode a heavy favorite.

*Two of those are about the blowback from one of the nominees for Best Short Story, "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" by Chuck Tingle.  Both Vox and We Hunted The Mammoth have hilarious summaries of how Tingle is doing his best to make Vox Day regret listing him on his slate.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Bill Maher on commencements, past and future

A week ago today, I attended my college's Commencement ceremony, where I watched my students from the past few years get their degrees. It was a wonderful experience, including the addresses by the student speaker and the former CEO of Garden Fresh. I'll be back for next year's ceremony.

Last night, Bill Maher had his own take on what ceremonies like that will be like in 25 years as part of New Rule – 2041 Commencement Address.

In his editorial New Rule, Bill has some harsh truths for college students and delivers a graduation speech to the Class of 2041.

Welcome to Dystopia!

This isn't the first time Bill has examined graduations. Here is last year's Graduation Caps – June 5, 2015.

It’s graduation time. And you know what that means – kids writing things on their mortarboards, like, “Hire Me” or “Thanks, Mom & Dad: I Love You.” Well, in these difficult times and with these millennials, the grad cap messages are a little different…

It turns out that Bill actually knows something about graduation speeches, having given one himself in 2014 to U.C. Berkeley's Winter Commencement.

Bill Maher gives the keynote address at UC Berkeley's Winter Commencement and graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 20, 2014.

That was worth listening to. Among all the doom, he was able to offer hope. Oh, look, a fellow Crazy Eddie!

Late night TV on Trump vs. Sanders debate

After I found out yesterday that Trump had finally collected a majority of delegates to the Republican convention, so he is now officially the presumptive nominee, I searched YouTube for an appropriately comedic reaction.  I found one in Stephen Colbert's Here's What Put Donald Trump Over The Top, although I've always thought Trump was over the top.

Hearing the news that Donald Trump has clinched the Republican nomination puts Stephen in the fetal position.

Yeah, Stephen, I wanted to lie down on hearing the news, too.

As viewers can see and hear, Trump's earning the nomination may have had top billing in the monologue, but it wasn't alone on stage.  The possibility of Sanders debating Trump shared the limelight and showed even more comedic potential.

One of the people responsible for the idea was Jimmy Kimmel, who had Trump and Sanders on as guests on consecutive nights.  Wednesday, Donald Trump told Jimmy he is willing todebate Bernie Sanders.

Donald Trump shares his opinion on the race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and agrees to debate Sanders under one condition.

The next night, Jimmy asked Senator Bernie Sanders about debating Trump.

Senator Sanders talks about the possibility of debating Donald Trump and competing against Secretary Hillary Clinton in California.

Jimmy even has an idea of what a Trump-Sanders debate would look and sound like.

Recently we showed what it looks like if you play Donald Trump at half-speed. We tried it with Bernie too, but it wasn’t as good. Then we slowed Trump down and sped Bernie up and Jimmy thinks that if they end up debating, he’d love it to go something like this.

It turns out that Comedy Central has already had their simulated Trump-Sanders debate back in March.

Bernie Sanders (James Adomian) and Donald Trump (Anthony Atamanuik) debate their likeness to Jesus and launch attack ads in the @midnight presidential debate.

A real debate would be more substantive, but it wouldn't be as funny.

As for whether it's a good idea, I'm not sure.  If it's bad for Clinton, she should debate Sanders one last time instead.  If it's good for Clinton, she should continue what she's doing, which is ignoring Sanders.  On the other hand, it would make for great TV.  Stay tuned.

ETA: Vox reports Never mind, Donald Trump doesn't want to debate Bernie Sanders after all.  Oh well, it was too good to be true.

Governor Snyder declares energy emergency in Michigan

I predicted "that price increases will likely stall out next week, at least until the Memorial Day weekend" in WXYZ on rising gas prices for May.  That didn't happen.  Instead, shows that the Detroit average jumped 12 cents to $2.47 on top of the previous week's 11 cent rise.  That was enough to prompt Governor Rick Snyder to declare an energy emergency, as WOOD-TV reported day before yesterday.

Gov. Rick Snyder issued the order as the state faces a potential gasoline shortage ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend.

I share Patrick DeHaan's skepticism about the effectiveness and timing of the order.  I expect the price increase to moderate before the weekend as well.

WXYZ also covered the issue.  While WOOD-TV focused on expert analysis, WXYZ went with their strength, reactions from people on the street.

Governor Rick Snyder has declared an energy emergency to combat rising gas prices going into the Memorial Day weekend.

People look and sound a little worried, but only a little.  This is more of an inconvenience than an emergency.

As for the situation after the holiday weekend, I expect prices to continue rising.  Oil-Price.Net lists yesterday's closing prices for WTI as $49.56 and Brent as $49.74.  Not only are those both above last Friday's $47.75 and $48.72 for Brent, WTI has set a new high for the year, while Brent is only a few cents below its high for the year, which it set last Wednesday, when WTI hit $48.95 and Brent hit $49.85.  The only good news is that RBOB closed yesterday at $1.64, exactly the same as it was last Friday and still two cents lower than its peak earlier this year at $1.66, a nine-month high.  That's probably why the U.S. average has only moved up a few cents from $2.28 to $2.31 over the past week.  It's also why I expect prices at the pump to decline a bit when the refinery and pipeline issues are fixed before rising again in late June and early July.

Census finds Detroit still shrinking in mid-decade estimate

Last week, the Census Bureau released its annual population estimates for 2015.  The results were generally predictable and so were the reactions.  WXYZ's response was to report Detroit out of top 20 cities.

Detroit's population decline has now pushed it out of the top 20 cities.

While the ongoing story of Detroit shrinking is the same one that I've been covering since the second post on this blog, I'm glad to note the good news that Downtown, Midtown, and the riverfront are growing and the rate of population loss is slowing.  When I wrote "It's an exciting time to live here, and I wouldn't miss it for the world" in April 2011, this is the kind of development, pun intended, I was hoping for.

MLive also covered this story, noting Denver knocks Detroit off list of 20 most populous U.S. cities and provided the following table.


Detroit didn't just fall behind Denver last year, it dropped below Seattle, too.  El Paso passed Detroit a year earlier.  The next cities to grow larger than Detroit proper will be Washington D.C. and Boston.

Not all the population news was bad, that is, if one favors population growth.  Fox 47 reported Lansing's Population is Growing.

Most cities in Michigan are losing population. But Lansing is one of the few that's actually growing.

Lansing is not alone.  MLive published a slideshow listing the five biggest gainers and losers in the state.  It lists Macomb Township, Novi, Shelby Township, Dearborn, and Southfield in the top five, along with Clinton Township and Canton Township gaining more than 3,000 people since 2010, followed by Lyon Township, which had the highest five-year percentage population growth rate of any municipality in the state, then Hamtramck, Pontiac, Sterling Heights, Farmington Hills, Birmingham, Rochester Hills, and Troy.  Detroit may be shrinking, but its suburbs are still booming.

So is Grand Rapids, as MLive reported.

Among Michigan's six cities with more than 100,000 people, Grand Rapids saw the biggest increase. Its population was estimated at 195,097 in 2015 -- up 848 people from the previous year.

Since 2010, Grand Rapids' population has increased by 7,043 people, or 3.7 percent. The only other place in Michigan with a bigger increase during that same period is Macomb Township, which grew by 7,299 people.

That growth is showing up in a boom in housing downtown, as WOOD-TV reported Downtown GR in the middle of ‘gangbuster economic moment’.

It doesn’t take an expert to look around and see the cranes dotting the Grand Rapids skyline and realize we are a growing city.

Detroit isn't the only big city in Michigan experiencing a revival of urban living.  As for a goal of 10,000 housing units in downtown Grand Rapids, that's ambitious, but I'm still in favor of it.  It will reduce sprawl and all its ills.

For more on this story, MLive has an interactive map showing population gain and loss for all municipalities in Michigan.  Have fun playing with it; you might learn something.

CNN and MSNBC interview Libertarian candidates William Weld and Gary Johnson

Over the weekend, Paul W. mentioned that the Libertarian national convention would be in Orlando this weekend and linked to Libertarian Gary Johnson picks former Mass. governor for VP at Politico.  I had the following reaction.

As for [William] Weld running with Johnson, that's a very serious ticket should the Libertarians actually choose both. They are serious about being the alternative to Trump and whoever he picks (please, let it be either Gingrich or Palin--the laughs will keep coming all the way to Election Day!) Too bad neither will meet the approval of William Kristol; the Libertarians are insufficiently hawkish and interventionist for his taste. He'd be better off with Hillary Clinton, but he'll never admit it. No wonder liberals call him "Captain Always Wrong."

As if on cue, CNN interviewed Weld on Sunday, just as they did Gary Johnson two weeks ago.

Today on CNN's State of the Union, Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate, joined Jake Tapper to discuss his comparison between Trump and the Holocaust, gun control and more.

I still think 2016 could be a good year for minor party candidates and so does CNN.

MSNBC does as well.  The Sunday before, Chuck Todd interviewed Gary Johnson in the context of Calls For Alternative Candidates Grows.

Can Republicans rally around Donald Trump as the convention draws near or will disaffected Republicans seek an alternative option in November? Former GOP New Mexico Governor and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson weighs in.

The Libertarian convention is this weekend.  Stay tuned for the results.

Solar Impulse 2 travels to Tulsa and Dayton

I concluded Solar Impulse 2 lands in Phoenix with a vague program note.

As for the plane's next stop, The Daily Mail reported "The solar-powered plane, which stores energy in batteries for when the sun is not shining, will make several stops across the United States, although the team is still examining potential destinations."  In other words, they don't know yet.  Stay tuned.

While I was looking elsewhere, the Solar Impulse team decided on their next stops.  First, Solar Impulse 2 arrives in Tulsa from May 13th.


After a week, the news became Solar Impulse 2 Makes an impact on Tulsa.

Solar Impulse 2 left for Dayton Ohio Saturday morning, but not before making an impact in Tulsa.

Looks like the plane succeeded in the educational part of its mission.

Saturday, the Associated Press reported Solar Impulse Lands At Home of Wright Brothers.

Solar powered plane travels from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Dayton, Ohio overnight to land at the city that is proud to be the hometown of the Wright Brothers.

USA Today also pointed out the significance of the location, but also of the date, pointing out that it was the 89th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh landing in Paris after his solo trans-Atlantic flight.

As for the next stage, AFP via Phys.org reported two more stops in the U.S. before flying over the Atlantic.

It may next fly to Pennsylvania as early as Tuesday, the team said. Its final destination in the United States is New York.

It could leave the day after tomorrow.  Stay tuned.