The family's flight was canceled due to the hurricane which passed to the south of Haiti. The whole of Sundays flights were canceled I guess. No one was at the airport at all. Madame spent the night at the hotel right by the airport; Visa Lodge.
This morning the AA staff at the airport sent everyone up to the American Airlines bureau at Delmas 32, quite a ways from the airport. Everyone who was denied a flight yesterday had to go there. Must have been a lot of people. Took her a number of hours to get to the counter; the kids went to sleep under the feet of the crowd.
She got a ticket to Miami, but not to Toronto. Hm.
The date of this flight? Aug 30. Ten days from now. Eleven days after the scheduled flight. They apparently do not care to send any extra planes to Port au Prince to pick up the days worth of passengers who were stranded.
They also do not feel any obligation to pay anything for this 10 day (no, 11 days) delay. AA is treating everyone like Haitians. No respect or concern at all.
Apparently there was a riot at the AA office when people started learning that they would be waiting many days, weeks for some people, for a flight to replace one days cancellation.
She said that the crowd smashed the windows of the office and the police had to be called. Must have been exciting with ti Emile-Alex having 18 months now, and two days after Roxie's fifth birthday party.
They are now at the hotel in PetionVille where Roxanne was born. Well, the hotel where we lived when Roxie was born. I'll have to call the Maitre to arrange the payment.
I guess kindergarten for Roxie will have to wait.
20 August 2007
16 August 2007
compressed air power
The Air powered car. Compressed air. Tata Motors is licensing it for India; I am interested in Tata cause they are going to build a micro car which will sell for 100,000 rupees. They call it 1 lakh rupees. Divide by 40 and you get approx $2500 U$D.
So, they've announced they will build an Air Car as well. Click it.
So, they've announced they will build an Air Car as well. Click it.
15 August 2007
Toronto, trash and scooters
Being in Toronto the past two weeks has been interesting. It has been a long time since I've spent much time in a big city. Other than Port au Prince, of course. Well, the trash situation in Toronto resembles Port au Prince more than San Francisco.
A big problem is that Ontario does not have a deposit on container law. Soda cans, zillions of 250ml water bottles, anything like that which is picked up by recyclers in California, are thrown on the ground. There is no financial incentive for anyone to pick them up. I've been told that Alberta has a deposit and redemption system, but Ontario does not. Hey, that is pretty backwards.
I see a few scooters here, not like San Fran or Santa Cruz. The riding season is cut short by snow, of course, but this is a large city with hardly any freeways; all surface streets. We need more scoots here. I did see a new Vespa GTV with the headlight on the fender. Beautiful. Expensive.
I've been searching the new scooter scene this past week. I had a Vespa GS 160 (maybe it was a 150) in the late 70's, then another in the late 80's, but they were both worn out and unreliable. I've been looking because lately a surge in new automatic plastic bodied can be seen in Calif. Most of them are from China, with unrecognized names.
Now, India has been making Vespa's under license for generations, and Bajaj is a popular bike in Calif, with a 150cc four stroke motor and the traditional manual transmisison with twist shift on the left handlebar. Another Indian Vespa has been sold in the USA as the Stella by Genuine Scooters. Well, the Indian manufacturer of that bike, LML of India, stopped producing any vehicles at all while searching for a partner. Bajaj makes only automatic scooters now; the market for traditional scoots disappeared in India.
But. Kinetic has been making some interesting automatic scooters. They bought the rights to the Italjet line of machines and have started producing one of them for the Indian market. Phase 2 motors is trying to bring these Indian scoots which are modern, tough, and built far better than most of the Chinese no name scoots one sees.
A big problem is that Ontario does not have a deposit on container law. Soda cans, zillions of 250ml water bottles, anything like that which is picked up by recyclers in California, are thrown on the ground. There is no financial incentive for anyone to pick them up. I've been told that Alberta has a deposit and redemption system, but Ontario does not. Hey, that is pretty backwards.
I see a few scooters here, not like San Fran or Santa Cruz. The riding season is cut short by snow, of course, but this is a large city with hardly any freeways; all surface streets. We need more scoots here. I did see a new Vespa GTV with the headlight on the fender. Beautiful. Expensive.
I've been searching the new scooter scene this past week. I had a Vespa GS 160 (maybe it was a 150) in the late 70's, then another in the late 80's, but they were both worn out and unreliable. I've been looking because lately a surge in new automatic plastic bodied can be seen in Calif. Most of them are from China, with unrecognized names.
Now, India has been making Vespa's under license for generations, and Bajaj is a popular bike in Calif, with a 150cc four stroke motor and the traditional manual transmisison with twist shift on the left handlebar. Another Indian Vespa has been sold in the USA as the Stella by Genuine Scooters. Well, the Indian manufacturer of that bike, LML of India, stopped producing any vehicles at all while searching for a partner. Bajaj makes only automatic scooters now; the market for traditional scoots disappeared in India.
But. Kinetic has been making some interesting automatic scooters. They bought the rights to the Italjet line of machines and have started producing one of them for the Indian market. Phase 2 motors is trying to bring these Indian scoots which are modern, tough, and built far better than most of the Chinese no name scoots one sees.
07 August 2007
Toronto Transit
I have had opportunity to take the Toronto TTC a number of times here. Mostly I sit in a 12th floor condo and read, but I've been out.
It is a real good system. At first I was put off by the $2.75 fare, but when going from out here at York University to downtown, that $2.75 goes a long way. One gets on the local route 106 to go to Downsview station. Or the 196 Rocket (express) to the same place, just a little faster.
At the transit station it is not necessary to use a transfer. Debarking from the bus one finds that one is inside the station; behind the barrier I suppose. You are above ground; enter the building and descend to the train platform and get on board. No hassles about getting a transfer, no one has to check anything.
It works the same in the other direction. Get on the subway downtown with a token or exact change and go to the end of the line. Downsview, in this case. Walk upstairs and go out to the bus platform and get on your bus. No hassles. I've never seen this before and like it very much.
Local papers talk about how the TTC has gone downhill, and Thorald (my host) remarks on how not too long ago the fare was $1 rather than $2.75, but it is far better integrated than the San Fran Bay area or Los Angeles, and far more pleasant than New York, NY.
There are hardly any freeways here. Freeways are what we call them out west. Expressway or Turnpike are terms used in the East. In San Jose an Expressway is a surface street with limited access, while a Freeway is completely isolated from the normal surface grid.
Toronto TTC must run a great many busses. They certainly have a large variety of types. New busses are Electric/Diesel hybrids while older ones are marked as Bio Bus; denoting Biodiesel fuel. They are still running 30 year old GMC forward look coaches; the single speed automatic V-drive with two stroke engines. Perhaps they are adapted with new engines, but the units we drove in the 70's. I liked them. They were hot rods to drive, handled like a sports truck.
The Central city has street cars as well, with overhead power. Looks like some Coviet block arrangement, Budapest perhaps. Some streets have a separated area in the middle of the road which autos are not allowed to share. This is being expanded recently, to the annoyance of some drivers, apparently.
It is a real good system. At first I was put off by the $2.75 fare, but when going from out here at York University to downtown, that $2.75 goes a long way. One gets on the local route 106 to go to Downsview station. Or the 196 Rocket (express) to the same place, just a little faster.
At the transit station it is not necessary to use a transfer. Debarking from the bus one finds that one is inside the station; behind the barrier I suppose. You are above ground; enter the building and descend to the train platform and get on board. No hassles about getting a transfer, no one has to check anything.
It works the same in the other direction. Get on the subway downtown with a token or exact change and go to the end of the line. Downsview, in this case. Walk upstairs and go out to the bus platform and get on your bus. No hassles. I've never seen this before and like it very much.
Local papers talk about how the TTC has gone downhill, and Thorald (my host) remarks on how not too long ago the fare was $1 rather than $2.75, but it is far better integrated than the San Fran Bay area or Los Angeles, and far more pleasant than New York, NY.
There are hardly any freeways here. Freeways are what we call them out west. Expressway or Turnpike are terms used in the East. In San Jose an Expressway is a surface street with limited access, while a Freeway is completely isolated from the normal surface grid.
Toronto TTC must run a great many busses. They certainly have a large variety of types. New busses are Electric/Diesel hybrids while older ones are marked as Bio Bus; denoting Biodiesel fuel. They are still running 30 year old GMC forward look coaches; the single speed automatic V-drive with two stroke engines. Perhaps they are adapted with new engines, but the units we drove in the 70's. I liked them. They were hot rods to drive, handled like a sports truck.
The Central city has street cars as well, with overhead power. Looks like some Coviet block arrangement, Budapest perhaps. Some streets have a separated area in the middle of the road which autos are not allowed to share. This is being expanded recently, to the annoyance of some drivers, apparently.
03 August 2007
those blogger settings
Today I finally got blogger to post to a directory at lyalls.net. It really just took reading the directions more closely. That, and figuring out when it was going to do SFTP or FTP. Our hosting service, webmasters, does not support SFTP, which is simply FTP over a secure sockets layer. Tech jargon.
Clearly reading the instructions consisted of determining what the ftp path for the documents was supposed to be.
Now, if I could figure out how to tweak the look of this blogging page, or insert it into the Devoid Zone page. But this is published as an html file, not a php file. Hm, perhaps I can treat it as a php file anyway and insert it. Something for later.
Clearly reading the instructions consisted of determining what the ftp path for the documents was supposed to be.
Now, if I could figure out how to tweak the look of this blogging page, or insert it into the Devoid Zone page. But this is published as an html file, not a php file. Hm, perhaps I can treat it as a php file anyway and insert it. Something for later.
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