Government Policy and Budget Discussion Thread (no politics)

[MrNubbz]

Just back from a walk, the weather is about as perfect as it can be for being outside.

Ya for january,snowed overnite 35 right now,maybe more snow on the way.If this happened 3 months back we could have went ice fishing

[longhorn320]

People have been building in harms way since the beginning of time

and I take exception that these are just poor people

Just go to Bolivar across from Galveston and see all the houses being built which will be

wiped out the next time a cat 4 or 5 hurricane hits.  After then the building will start again until the

next time and on and on

[CWSooner]

People have been building in harms way since the beginning of time

and I take exception that these are just poor people

Just go to Bolivar across from Galveston and see all the houses being built which will be

wiped out the next time a cat 4 or 5 hurricane hits.  After then the building will start again until the

next time and on and on

Foolishness knows no socio-economic limits.

We had a dusting of snow the other night.  Something like the 2nd-latest snow we've ever had.  It didn't stick, as the surface temp was about 34 F.

[Cincydawg]

Fortunately, we're on a ridge, but a lot of fancy mansions were built too close to Peachtree Creek which has a fairly large watershed.  Guess what happens in heavy rains?

The Chattahoochee is mostly hemmed in with bluffs, no real bottomlands around here to build anything, so the river stayed relatively pristine except Lake Lanier.

The Ohio River cuts through bluffs but does have some bottomlands along the path, many of which today are heavy industry.  I remember flying our little Cessna up the river a bit, it was pretty neat to see all this stuff along the river.

Well, at least Americans know better than to build a large city somewhere in the middle of a desert.  That would be inane.  How would they get water?

[847badgerfan]

Yep.  That's the same function seaports fulfill.

Does Buffalo qualify as a seaport?

Don't know, but it's not on the list of ranked ports by tonnage. Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland are ranked.

You can find stuff here if you are curious.

https://www.aapa-ports.org/

For the record, my overall plan for America's waters calls for shutting off access from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin. It can be replaced with rail. Chicago will scream bloody murder, but oh well. It's time to right a wrong.

[Cincydawg]

I was musing about foreign cities like Venice and the entire country of Holland.  London of course is upstream from the ocean as is Paris.  Paris kept getting raided by Norsemen, so the King worked a deal with one of them named Rollo where he gave them a large chunk of land to protect Paris that we now call Normandy.  The Normans of course became Englishmen over time when Rollo's grandson decided he wanted it.

Guilleaume, or something like that.

Rome is a bit upstream also.  I think St. Petersburg is in a former swamp.  We are slated to visit there in September, that of course looks iffy.

Nearly all the major cities in Australia are on the coast, maybe all of them.  A lot of SF is built on fill which doesn't work well when the earth quakes.

[MrNubbz]

For the record, my overall plan for America's waters calls for shutting off access from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin. It can be replaced with rail. Chicago will scream bloody murder, but oh well. It's time to right a wrong.

Ya but Chi-Town is ok with rails,a tit for a tat

[GopherRock]

Yep.  That's the same function seaports fulfill.

Does Buffalo qualify as a seaport?

At the time of its heyday, yes. Recall the location of the Niagara Falls. Buffalo is where the freight coming east off the Great Lakes had to be offloaded. Where it went varied. Most of it was reloaded onto barges and smaller boats for the journey down the Erie Canal. 

It wasn't until the opening of the current Welland Canal that large-size lake boats could get between Lakes Erie and Ontario without offloading. This  wasn't the sole reason for Buffalo's decline, but it's a non-small part. 

[CWSooner]

Don't know, but it's not on the list of ranked ports by tonnage. Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland are ranked.

You can find stuff here if you are curious.

https://www.aapa-ports.org/

For the record, my overall plan for America's waters calls for shutting off access from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin. It can be replaced with rail. Chicago will scream bloody murder, but oh well. It's time to right a wrong.

Where does traffic from the Great Lakes get into the Mississippi basin?
River transportation is a lot cheaper and more energy-efficient than any form of land transportation, although rail is by far the best method on wheels.

[CWSooner]

At the time of its heyday, yes. Recall the location of the Niagara Falls. Buffalo is where the freight coming east off the Great Lakes had to be offloaded. Where it went varied. Most of it was reloaded onto barges and smaller boats for the journey down the Erie Canal.

It wasn't until the opening of the current Welland Canal that large-size lake boats could get between Lakes Erie and Ontario without offloading. This  wasn't the sole reason for Buffalo's decline, but it's a non-small part.

I was thinking it might be a seaport by way of the Great Lakes Waterway.  I wasn't thinking about the Erie Canal, although I know that Buffalo is its western terminus.

I've got a mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal
Fifteen years on the Erie Canal

We've hauled some barges in our day
Filled with lumber, coal, and hay
And every inch of the way I (we) know
From Albany to Buffalo

But I guess that being the western terminus of the Erie Canal qualifies it.  Tulsa considers itself a seaport because Catoosa, just to the NE, is the northern terminus of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Nagivation System.  I don't really buy that, though.  Barge-traffic-capable doesn't really make a seaport, IMO.

[847badgerfan]

Where does traffic from the Great Lakes get into the Mississippi basin?
River transportation is a lot cheaper and more energy-efficient than any form of land transportation, although rail is by far the best method on wheels.

Port of Chicago and downtown Chicago.

Those, and an inlet/outlet in Wilmette, could also be a port of entry for Asian Carp into the Great Lakes. Electric barriers are in place along the waterways leading to Lake Michigan to try and stop them. Of course, there are many other ways for them to get into the Great Lakes. It's not proven that they could live, however. They tend to like warmer water. They might like Lake Erie some. They've been found there, but that point of entry has been taken care of.

This is a very interesting website:  http://glmris.anl.gov/

Check it out.

[CWSooner]

That is an interesting website.

So, Chicago is the culprit?

[OrangeAfroMan]

I was talking about ancient peoples - not modern times.  In modern times, people build everywhere, because there's a dollar to be made and they don't care about foresight.  That's obvious.

[CWSooner]

I was talking about ancient peoples - not modern times.  In modern times, people build everywhere, because there's a dollar to be made and they don't care about foresight.  That's obvious.

Is ancient history an area of expertise for you, Afro?
It's not for me, but it seems that you have a sort of cartoon understanding of it.