SoCal

New Metrolink Car by Szoksnapshots, on Flickr

Cool video describing the upcoming sbX E-Street transit project.

There's also a new website describing the planned Intermodal Transit Center in downtown San Bernardino: Are You In?

The new intermodal center will connect 13 existing Omnitrans bus lines, along with forthcoming sbX Bus Rapid Transit routes, 2 Metrolink route extensions, and a future light rail line to downtown Redlands.

The downtown center will not only be an iconic, world-class transportation gateway, but will be a catalyst for economic revitalization and development in San Bernardino. This will be the center point for a new transit village, where pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhoods with sustainable urban design encourage walking, bicycling, and using transit. The Village will include new public spaces- such as parks and plazas, new retail centers, new restaurants and cafes, new office spaces and meeting places, as well as new housing units for people with varying incomes.

Can't wait for that new light rail service to Redlands, but it'll likely be another five years at least.

My dream is to ride my bike to the train and take it to Union Station in Los Angeles, then bike up the hill to Dodger Stadium to see a game. :)

Very strange earthquake frenzy this past week in Redlands. The latest about half an hour ago was a series of four within five minutes of each other:

PRELIM: M3.4 19:53 2/19 34.0N 117.2W 5 km SSW of Redlands, CA GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF. Z=4km CI 10544893 33f06

PRELIM: M3.3 19:54 2/19 34.0N 117.2W 4 km SSW of Redlands, CA GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF. Z=6km CI 10544901 33f06

PRELIM: M3.3 19:57 2/19 34.0N 117.2W 6 km SSW of Redlands, CA GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF. Z=8km CI 10544925 33f06

PRELIM: M2.5 19:58 2/19 34.0N 117.2W 5 km SSW of Redlands, CA GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA, CALIF. Z=9km CI 10544933 33f06

Even before these four, there had been over 100 quakes along the San Jacinto Fault south of Redlands since the 4.1 quake on February 13th -- more than 20 of those 100 were bigger than 2.0. (See Daily Facts (2/18): "Tremors rattle Redlands".)

Disconcerting, to say the least.

UPDATE:

@Hangar24Brewery: 22 Earthquakes based in Redlands so far today! Time for a beer. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/117-34.html

UPDATE 2:

From PE.com:

Since [the 4.1 quake on Feb. 13th], six minor quakes and more than 115 micro quakes — magnitude 2.5 or smaller — have struck in the same region.

Scott Timberg writes in the LA Times about Philip K. Dick's years in Orange County, "Philip K. Dick: A 'plastic' paradox".

It would certainly be hard to find more of a polar opposite of Dick's Bay Area nature than the "nightmarish," Nixon-infused landscape of Orange County in the 70s.

[...] after moving to Southern California, Dick often fell back on Bay Area reflexes. "He kept comparing Southern California to Disneyland," remembers [ex-wife] Tessa, "and said it was plastic, wasn't real."

Dick was aware of the cliché. In the novel "Radio Free Albemuth," a narrator named Phil Dick speaks of Orange County, "far to the south of us, an area so reactionary to us that in Berkeley it seemed like a phantom land, made of the mists of dire nightmare. . . . Orange County, which no one in Berkeley had ever actually seen, was the fantasy at the other end of the world, Berkeley's opposite."

Novelist Jonathan Lethem, editor of the three Library of America Dick collections, calls this "a period where he seems less grounded in place." The author's work, Lethem says, reveals a "very strong alienation from any real environment -- it's about Disneyland, about condos where you park your car under the building, where you barely get to know your neighbors. It's about Nixon. It's almost as if Dick was a spy in Orange County."

That dissolution of real place, along with Dick's increasing obsessions and visions, raises the question of whether the phantasms his mind constructed originated as much in his real-world location as in his head.

Some other "two-three-seventy four" event could have taken place in Berkeley instead of Fullerton, setting him on his path to a new personal cosmology, but what might it have been like, incubated in another culture? What would have become of his great 1970s works had he stayed on in Northern California or elsewhere?

Too many "What If" questions to get a useful answer, but the possibilities are intriguing.

The article includes interview excerpts with Tessa Dick, as well as with Dick's daughter Isa.

The San Bernardino County Museum is putting on Train Days this coming weekend. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

If you love trains, this is the day to be at the Museum! Check out real train artifacts and play special train games with us! Visit the circus, operate a locomotive, and design your own railroad logo! Watch as model trains and trolleys steam past country scenery or zoom through the cities!

That's four exclamation points, so you know it's going to rock! ;D

It's the regular museum admission prices: $8 for adults, $6 for senior or military, $5 for students with ID, and $4 for kids 5-12. You can get a family museum admission for one year when you join the Museum Association for $40, by the way. Great deal, as they often have cool events.

I'm hoping to be there, elbowing children out of the way for a better view of the train layouts. ;D

Download PDF flyer.

Closing out some Firefox tabs of awesomeness...

Warren Ellis on Wired.co.uk -- "Look out for Hollywood films about spelunking on the Moon"

2010 is here. "The year we make contact", if you like SF novels or watched the film 2010, while looking at your watch and wondering how long until Helen Mirren got her baps out. In keeping with Wired’s position as "futury magazine about all the futures that will happen in your pants in the future", I now bring you "predictions of things that will definitely happen in 2010". Happy New Year, and try not to scream too loudly. That sort of thing wakes up the flesh-eating EATR robots.

LA Times -- "L.A. City Council wants bullet train officials to weigh two options for Union Station"

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously urged officials at the California High Speed Rail Authority today to consider two proposed alternatives for the bullet train stop at Union Station downtown.

Councilman Ed Reyes said the alternatives were crucial to protecting the residents in East Los Angeles as planners determine the route for the 800-mile bullet train between Northern California and San Diego. Proponents say the train would carry passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 2½ hours.

NY Times -- "E-Reading, in 2 Authors’ Eyes"

What do authors think of the new electronic replacements for bound paper? Some are traditionalists who want nothing to do with electronic readers — one book editor said that most of his authors avoided the devices.

Ars Technica -- "How Robber Barons hijacked the 'Victorian Internet'"

Ars revisits those wild and crazy days when Jay Gould ruled the telegraph and Associated Press reporters helped fix presidential elections. Is government supervision really the worst thing that can happen to a communications network?

/. -- Is Linux Documentation Lacking?

"A number of blog posts are surfacing that are calling out the helpful open source community on their documentation. No, not the documentation for the highly skilled technical people, but the documentation from beginner to apprentice. [...] Is it really as bad as these blogs paint it? Has it come down to using Google before a man page?"

I caught the new PBS documentary "Inventing LA: The Chandlers & Their Times" this past week, which is,

...a documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Peter Jones, [chronicling] the epic saga of the most powerful family in Los Angeles' history who for four generations wielded unique influence through their newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, to shape modern day L.A.

Lots of great historical details, insights, and, let's face it, dirt on the decades of machinations both in front of and behind the scenes to create 20th Century Los Angeles. Highly recommended.

You can actually watch it online, though I'd say catch it on TV if you can, as there's a ton of cool vintage photographs and video to see at the best quality available. Be sure to check out the extra material on the website as well.