@Mookafish Or it gets 'seasoned' after it's first flight and becomes a toughened barrier that doesn't ablate. It's the same material as the tiles, silica fibers that haven't been fully fused in a furnace like the tiles are. The maiden flight is the furnace.
@data_atx Without evidence I would not assume a misanthropic origin. Nature does this all the time. Birds can pick up a fish and drop it in another reservoir miles away.
Austin's Project Connect is the most disastrous transportation plan in America. All you need to know:
- In 2020, Austin asked voters to permanently raise everyone's property taxes for a train.
- The pitch: $7.1 billion, 20 miles of light rail, 26 stops, a downtown tunnel, a direct ride to the airport.
- It passed with 58%. The tax is permanent.
- Then the plan changed. No tunnel and no airport. Half the length and just 15 stations. And it costs much more: $8.23 billion.
- That's $840 million per mile. Most expensive transit project per mile in Texas history. Second-most-expensive light rail project in America
- Half the money ($4 billion) is supposed to come from DC. No grant awarded and no signed agreement.
- The rest is your property tax, plus loans repaid with your property tax, plus bonds repaid with your property tax.
- The FTA reviewed the financial plan and said the revenue assumptions are bogus and there's no reserve for overruns.
- First passengers ride in November 2033.
- Does it fix traffic? Projected effect on regional driving in 2045: a 0.044% reduction. Four hundredths of one percent.
- Ridership is so low it works out to $244,000 in construction cost per daily rider.
- The city's own analysis says congestion gets worse with the train.
- Morning rush hour bottlenecked intersections will increase about 33%. 71 businesses displaced and hundreds of homes affected.
- Parking will get much more expensive -- 607 parking spaces to be eliminated downtown, on South Congress, etc.
- Meanwhile the city spent $255 million on 197 electric buses. The batteries couldn't handle Austin heat so many sitting in storage.
- ATP, the agency spending your money, is run by five appointed board members. You vote for none of them. The CEO makes $405k. They tried to lease fancy downtown office space for $32 million in rent, and only dropped it after people noticed and pressured city council.
- Transportation experts call this one of the most wasteful transportation plans they’ve ever seen
If the 2020 ballot had read "9.8 miles of rail, no tunnel, no airport, $8.2 billion, a quarter million dollars per rider, worse traffic, less parking, first passenger in 2033" -- would it pass?