Life on the Rails

[lustindarkness]

Ah, just a few more clicks north of the other point of nothingness.
BTW, just south of The Rio Cesar, google maps has a satellite pic of a long coal train with two "white" engines, must have over 100 cars (I'm too lazy to count them).

[lustindarkness]

How about I get back to work instead?

That's just crazy talk. 

I thought so too.

[Savonarola]

Sav, this is great stuff.

I wonder if there is a specific term for the ability to tell what is basically a mundane story well enough to make it interesting anyway?

Blarney 

I have an ability to tell an interesting story in such a way that it bores everyone listening anyway.

You really should be writing for a living.

Thanks, Berkut.   

[Savonarola]

Ah, just a few more clicks north of the other point of nothingness.
BTW, just south of The Rio Cesar, google maps has a satellite pic of a long coal train with two "white" engines, must have over 100 cars (I'm too lazy to count them).

It's probably a Prodecco train, but some of Drummond's older trains have white roofs as well.  About 100 cars (1800 m) used to be the maximum length of the trains.  Today they're up to around 130 cars (2400 m.)

[Admiral Yi]

Do you feel guilty at about your contribution to global warming? 

[Savonarola]

Do you feel guilty at about your contribution to global warming? 

I was only following orders.   

(The vast majority of this coal is shipped to Europe for steel manufacturing.  Only a small fraction is used for power generation in the Caribbean.)

[Admiral Yi]

I was only following orders.   

(The vast majority of this coal is shipped to Europe for steel manufacturing.  Only a small fraction is used for power generation in the Caribbean.)

Does the use of coal in steel making not emit CO2?  Honest question.

[Savonarola]

I was only following orders.   

(The vast majority of this coal is shipped to Europe for steel manufacturing.  Only a small fraction is used for power generation in the Caribbean.)

Does the use of coal in steel making not emit CO2?  Honest question.

I really don't know; I'm not a metallurgist.

[lustindarkness]

Do you feel guilty at about your contribution to global warming? 

Do you? I don't.

[Admiral Yi]

Do you? I don't.

A bit.

[Savonarola]

Colombian Democracy

Prior to coming to Colombia I read a history of Latin America called "The Epic of Latin America" by John Crow.  His thesis was that the United States and Latin America have distinct world views based upon our "Protestant" and "Catholic" cultures respectively.  The United States's society is centered on the individual and Latin America's is on the community.  I was reminded of that one day when I was talking with Luis Fernando and one of my drivers.  It was right after the massacre at Umpqua Community College and they asked me why this had happened.  Not a lot was known at this point.  I told them that the young man was probably mentally ill and it's very easy to get firearms in the United States.  They both agreed, but said that the greater problem was the breakdown of our families.  It struck me that the difference in our perspective is what Crow had been getting at.  I thought the issue was that government had failed the individual; while they thought that the community had failed.

For this reason Colombian politics remained opaque to me.  The Colombians regarded their own politicians with disdain, and frequently complained about their lethargy and corruption.  Still they all agreed that they were worlds better than those across the border in Venezuela.

Politics did seem to be ever present, even if the politicians weren't held in high esteem.  There were politician names painted on walls or on signs all the time when I was in Colombia.  When we returned in August after a two month hiatus things had taken off significantly.  There was an election in October, and everything was in high gear.

There were billboards up.  The most prominent was the Radical Change candidate her slogan was "Rosa is your governor."  She was the incumbent, which is funny given her party's name.  The socialist was running on the slogan "We are more than them."  Go us!

In the country there were a couple candidates who used their nickname on their signs.  The one that amused me the most was a guy who called himself "El Negro."  He wasn't a black man as far as I could tell; but Colombia does have a racial caste system that's invisible to outsiders, he could have been black by their standards.

A number of people had their candidates named plastered over every inch of their car.  Usually these people were the worst drivers on the road (an accomplishment in Colombia.)  I thought maybe those were false flags planted by the named candidates' opponents.

In the city candidates would have cars with a PA system on it.  They'd deliver speeches as they walked, or sometimes they'd stop and deliver a speech at a crowded area.  Usually they weren't the best of speakers, rendering the candidates voice to the adult voices on the Charlie Brown cartoons.  They were still far better than in the country, where candidates were reduced to delivering their speeches while riding bitch on a motorcycle and holding a bullhorn.  I'm not sure that was an effective way to deliver a campaign message, as they seemed to spark almost no interest from the locals.

[MadImmortalMan]

I think it's pretty universal. The more bumper stickers on a car, the more likely the driver is terrible.

[Admiral Yi]

I think it's pretty universal. The more bumper stickers on a car, the more likely the driver is terrible.

In my experience bumper stickers correlate with slow and safe.

[MadImmortalMan]

A dude with his cones.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I was only following orders.   

(The vast majority of this coal is shipped to Europe for steel manufacturing.  Only a small fraction is used for power generation in the Caribbean.)

Does the use of coal in steel making not emit CO2?  Honest question.

about everything one does produces CO2. But isn't the purpose of using coal to have a certain amount of the carbon bind with the metal in order to make it less brittle?