Borders Liquidation in the era of e-book

It is safe to assume that the US public in general have mixed feelings about the recent announcement that Borders Group is liquidating its stores all around the country.

At least that's what I feel. With the ascent of Amazon's online store, together with those offered by Kinokuniya and Barnes&Noble, rolling heads would not only be expected, it is also anticipated.

Experience tells us that most people don't read a book more than once in their lifetime. Once they finish the book, they hardly ever open it again (unless it's a textbook, dictionary, Atlas, Road guides, or Holy scriptures). So what's the point of purchasing a book if you can get them for next-to-nothing or even free in online stores?

Some would argue that they still prefer to hold the physical book in their hands instead of reading e-book from a Nook or Kindle. Well fine, go to the library and check out a title. It costs nothing and it's that simple.

However, even though we have anticipated this shutdown of bookstores for a long time, I would like to ponder for a moment here. Of all the three bookstore behemoths I have visited, Borders is usually the one that provides the best convenience of all. They're generally smaller than either Barnes&Noble or Kinokuniya, but the atmosphere of Borders is the most welcoming to customers. You can even sleep and lay down on the hundreds of available couches while browsing magazines and comic books.

I gotta admit I'd miss that when the last store finally closes.

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Sometimes

Sometimes I wish I could go back to that life in the tropics, to Indonesia.

In the tropics:

• Life was much slower-paced,



• I had more close friends I could hang out with,



• It was much easier to get a date,



• I had my entire family (including cousins, aunts, etc) reachable within a short bus ride, and



• Martabak vendors are just a short motorcycle ride away.

Here in the Midwest:

• I barely get enough sleep,



• It's a nonstop cycle between my full-time work shifts and my full-time college,



• I have nigh no time to even meet any close friends,



• so far, the last girl I asked bailed out on me,



• I only have my Mom and my sis (in August), and



• TacoBell sucks. Really sucks.

I mean, I do admit that we have Skyline Chilli here, but it does not diminish the very fact that TacoBell sucks.

Moreover, despite the fact that Kentucky is the origin of Kentucky Fried Chicken, I tell you the truth here: Kentucky restaurants in Southeast Asia have better-tasting chicken meals than KFC in Kentucky.

Seriously.

However, anybody were to ask me if I'm interested to visit Indonesia now, I would answer NO wholeheartedly.

I am not interested in that whole "new life, everybody has changed" thing that my friends and family members are gonna display in their faces when I meet with them.

I love the old them in 2009. I prefer the old them in 2009. I am totally not interested into those new changes they have in their lives.

If only I could go back and revisit those Indonesians of 2009 (as opposed to the Indonesians of 2011, who mostly sucks like hell), that would be heaven for me.

Seriously.

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Missing the very concept of "holiday", and "hanging out with buddies"

To be honest, sometimes I do miss being back in the tropics, in Indonesia. Such as sitting around and lazing around for several days in a stretch on a hammock at home, which would somehow be my very definition of nirvana at this very moment.

Prior to going back to continue my education in college in Northern Kentucky, I had the very impression that college life would be just "an extension of high school", where I can meet people around my age (i.e., late teens or early 20s) and perhaps, somehow, pick up a date.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I took a random sampling of student age of two classes I attended, which are American Government (Pol 101) and Human Geography (Geo 160). Out of 20-plus number of individuals who attend those classes, a staggering percentage of approx. 85% to 90% of them are above the age of 26.

Admittedly, there are certain classes in campus which are filled with mostly younger group of people, but for me to join those classes, I would have to switch my major (or declare those classes as electives, which in the end could very likely die off as non-transferable course credits).

I have nothing against befriending older people, because as a matter of fact, having people who are much older than me as me friends does help me to have a more mature outlook on things I face in life. I could even confidently say that I am a more mature person today than I was before I even met those people.

But I still somehow could not deny the fact that there is still this hollow, this void, that needs to be filled by hanging out with people my own age. Veritably I tell you, I have even forgotten the last time I went to the mall or theatre with somebody else my own age.

So it gets quite lonely for me most of the time, and going to college does not necessarily changes that.

As a matter of fact, with my back-to-back schedule of working in the office for 40 hours a week and attending classes of 15-20 hours a week (Yes, I do attend summer classes), I hardly have any chance to have a recess at all, let alone finding time to socialise with people. The two days that I am granted leave from office every week are only used for sleeping long hours. Or, if I'm fortunate, try out some Wii games and watch DVDs before the slumber.

I haven't had a stretch of week-long holiday for nigh two years now. I have no life. It's summer yet I have no social life.

I just wish it's Canada already.

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Plans for Searing Summer: Canada or South?

I've always wanted to go to Canada. There are a lot of gorgeous looking ladies up there. And now that it's searing hot outside, I probably will.

Or not.

It sucks when you live on a limited budget.

I plan on getting a new Smartphone sometime later this month, but I'm still undecided whether I should get an iPhone 4 (which is gonna suck when you see a new version of iPhone 5 next year) or a Samsung Infuse (which is one of the very first Droids in the country that runs on a 4G platform).

My sister and father's upcoming arrival (which is going to be their first visit to the country after more than 10 years in Southeast Asia) is very much awaited too. I will not write anything about the exact dates until everything is confirmed, but let it be made known that their visit here will be very much anticipated. Can't wait.

Anyway, now I know what I want for Christmas: a Prius. Or Nissan Leaf.

Do you know that Nissan Leaf can run very low mileage (up to 99 Miles per Gallon!). With the gasoline price so steep these days, I wish for nothing else other than saving on weekly fuel purchases.

It would not be so prudent to actually buy a hybrid vehicle this year (such an idea is per se, impossible since I have not got a pay raise yet). Hence, probably sometime next year I hand over/inherit my Subaru to Sis M or Mom or whoever wants the car after I'm done with the payments.

Back to the earlier topic, the family (i.e.: the whole package of Me, Sis M, Mom & Dad) might be able to travel to somewhere closer to home, like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

I always wonder what the South actually looks like, and I've always wanted to go there too. Let's just hope everyone will find such a summer vacation delightful to look forward to.

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Bullet Trains in USA

written by kansai2kansas as a term paper for his Geography 160 class

High-speed rail, or bullet train as it is more commonly known, is a method of transportation more commonly found among advanced countries in the world. According to the standard directive used by European Union, High-speed rail is generally defined as any railway service with a minimum speed of 250 km/h (for the newly built ones) and a lower threshold of minimum speed of 200 km/h (for the upgraded conventional ones) [Source 1].

Among European and Eastern Asian countries, the technology of bullet train, and the lack of interest of American people for its use in USA thereof, has somewhat become a global laughingstock. So far, there is only one bullet train service that is already fully operational in USA, namely the Acela Express (owned by Amtrak) that runs from Boston to Washington DC.

It is a sad fact indeed. Despite being the most economically and militarily advanced country in the world, there had only been limited interest in developing or funding this particular method of transportation in America.

It was only in February 2011 that Vice President Biden proposed to improve passenger rail in the United States with a cost of $53 billion over six years. This would include separate high-speed rail corridors in the state of California, Texas, Southeast region, Midwest region, and Pacific Northwest region. This plan unsurprisingly became a hot issue for the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who are usually reluctant to adopt this technology in the first place [Source 2].

However, it has become evident that with Barack Obama, a Democrat, holding the presidency, slightly more liberal values of adopting this bullet train technology has become more and more accepted these days. 70% of Democrats and 34% of Republicans (which total to around 48% of Americans) are in full support of Biden’s plan [Source 3].

Now let us explore this question: why was it from 1900 to 2000 Americans were always reluctant to adopt this brilliant technology?

This caters to the human-environment interaction theme of Geography. It is not that USA lacked the ability to adopt it. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, USA was the country that invented bullet train technology in the first place! Called high-speed interurban, it enabled people to travel in a relatively shorter time than cars [Source 4].

However, due to various reasons, starting from the Great Depression which left the maintenance of interurbans to be too expensive to the scandal involving General Motors’ plan of killing off the existence of interurbans so that Americans would use more of GM’s vehicles instead (which some people these days cite as a conspiracy theory) [Source 5], Americans stopped using interurbans at all.

Conspiracy theories aside, the very idea of having a competition in ground transportation is found in the main enemy of bullet trains, which are the airline companies. This is the economic factor of geography. One commonly known example was when Southwest Airlines, with the help of lobbyists, tried and (successfully) blocked the financing of Texas High Speed Rail Authority in the Texas Triangle (which consists of Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, and San Antonio) in year 1994 [Source 6].

For the people in Southwest USA (around Nevada, Utah, and Arizona), having a high-speed train service also would not be to their best interest. This caters to the movement theme of geography. They have a mountainous geography (where it would cost more pricey to build rail service) with relatively less people to use the trains in the first place [Source 7].

It also somehow caters to the culture of American people itself. The very culture of USA, that it is much more delightful if you can drive from East Coast to West Coast (and vice versa) in the comfort of your own SUV, truck, or convertibles has been popularised in pop culture scenes, such as the song Country Road (by John Denver), the movie Crossroads (starring Britney Spears), or the movie Road Trip. Americans see it as much more “fun” if you can travel while stopping at certain favourite towns on your car drive instead of having to abide by such strict predetermined stops of train travel [No source, this is from author’s personal knowledge].
These days, if you do not live in the states of New York, Massachusetts, or Maryland, there is no chance that you can ever ride in a bullet train.

The limited availability of bullet train is about to change within the next 5-15 years though. The earliest (tentative) completion date for more bullet trains can be as early as 2017 for Florida’s Corridor (which would run from Orlando to Miami) to 2025 for California Corridor (which would run from Sacramento to San Diego) and Midwest Corridor (which would run from Chicago to St Louis and Cincinnati) [Source 8].

So far, Obama’s administration has got a head start with $8 billion of federal funding, with the main test bed is in California (which already has voter-approved funding).

Personally speaking, I am delighted that a widespread adaptation of bullet train for other states (outside of Northeast) is coming soon. It is only a matter of time before us people in the Midwest regions also get a share of this excellent method of transportation, which could connect us from Cincinnati to Chicago (which is 410 km, or 254 miles apart) in two to three hours. [Source 9]

Some naysayers may argue that two to three hours for such a short distance is too long...airplanes can travel in much less time. For example, they would question why would we want to sit on a train for three hours from Chicago to Cincinnati when it only takes one hour by plane? [Source 10]

In asking such a question, they also seem to have forgotten that when they travel by plane, unless they actually own the plane (or it is a chartered private plane), they have to go through the painstaking process of checking-in their luggage, going thru security checks, waiting for the taxiing of the plane in the runway, and later on taking your suitcases from the conveyor belt which could altogether add up to another three to four hours total! Moreover, airports all around the world tend to be located quite far from the downtown of the city (such as O’Hare International Airport which is located in the northernmost corner of Chicago, JFK International Aiport which is located in Long Island, and even Greater Cincinnati CVG International Airport which is not located in Ohio but in Hebron, Kentucky!). Being located so far from the downtown would prove to add another travel time by road, thus the average time for someone travelling from Cincinnati to Chicago by taking an aeroplane would altogether add up to five hours total!

On the other hand, when you travel by train, you do not need to go thru so much hassle. You can simply go to your nearest train station (which would most of the time be located in the downtown, thus enhancing its reachability), buy a ticket, board the train, and alight in your next stop in the train station of city of destination (which would also most likely be located in the downtown). Thus, the average (tentative) time for someone travelling from Cincinnati to Chicago by bullet train would altogether add up to three hours total (As of today, this is still a mere estimate since such a Midwest corridor has been completed yet).

In terms of dreams, there have also been visions for a quite distant future to build an underwater train from New York to London, with a speed totalling 6000 km/h and would enable a travel time of only five hours. It is possible, and it might happen someday. Alas, such a plan is not economically feasible yet, since its skyrocketing costs can add up to $175 billion [Source 11]. As of today, the American government has more priorities it can spend on, such as improving the quality of education and creating more jobs. But it never hurts to dream, does it not? Especially since we have already got this dream of having more bullet trains in USA which is about to come true in the near future.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Source 1] = "General Definitions of Highspeed - UIC - International Union of Railways." UIC - International Union of Railways - The Worldwide Organisation of Cooperation for Railway Companies. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article971
[Source 2] = "Vice President Biden Announces Six Year Plan to Build National High-Speed Rail Network." The White House. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/08/vice-president-biden-announces-six-year-plan-build-national-high-speed-r
[Source 3] = Web. http://www.visioncritical.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2010.04.06_Trains_USA.pdf
[Source 4] = "Houston Streetcars - Galveston-Houston Interurban." Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://members.iglou.com/baron/interurban.htm
[Source 5] = Adams, Cecil. "The Straight Dope: Did General Motors Destroy the LA Mass Transit System?" The Straight Dope - Fighting Ignorance Since 1973. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/551/did-general-motors-destroy-the-la-mass-transit-system
[Source 6] = "TGVweb - Texas TGV." TrainWeb.org. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/texastgv.html
[Source 7] = "Don't Jump aboard High-speed Rail | Deseret News." Salt Lake City and Utah Breaking News, Sports, Entertainment and News Headlines - Deseret News. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705329446/Dont-jump-aboard-high-speed-rail.html
[Source 8] = Glave, James, and Rachel Swaby. "Superfast Bullet Trains Are Finally Coming to the U.S. | Magazine | Wired.com." Wired.com. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_fasttrack/all/1
[Source 9] = "City Distance Tool - Find the Distance between 2 Cities." Geobytes Home Page. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.geobytes.com/CityDistanceTool.htm?loadpage
[Source 10] = "How Long to Fly from Cincinnati to Chicago? - True Knowledge." True Knowledge - the Internet Answer Engine. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/how_long_to_fly_from_cincinnati_to_chicago
[Source 11] = "Trans-Atlantic MagLev | Popular Science." Popular Science | New Technology, Science News, The Future Now. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-04/trans-atlantic-maglev

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