June in Kenora

Blogger Laurence Hunt sends some pictures of Northern Ontario after a month of sunshine and rain. It looks splendid: The Kenora Palette.

How General Motors derailed the streetcar

Back before everybody had a car, thein the 1920s, re was a reasonable light rail system in the U.S. - and in Canada, too. I recall my mother telling me that you could take streetcars from city to city.

What happened to that budding public transit system? Did everyone just decide to buy cars one day? Not quite. They had help. Read “The Great American Streetcar Scandal.”

Here’s a hint:

GM Bought and Dismantled Streetcar Lines Nationwide
GM began by funding a company called National City Lines (NCL), which by 1946 controlled streetcar operations in 80 American cities.

“Despite public opinion polls that showed 88 percent of the public favoring expansion of the rail lines after World War II, NCL systematically closed its streetcars down until, by 1955, only a few remained,” writes author Jim Motavalli in his 2001 book, Forward Drive.

A gal named Sue

Actually, a dino named Sue. I’ve discovered that Chicago’s famous Field Museum of natural history is within easy transit reach. They are the home of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, nicknamed “Sue.”

I’m planning to go there tomorrow.

Florida travel: Key West to Coral Springs

We’ve arrived safely in Coral Springs, Florida, after a leisurely trip up the Florida Keys. (”Key” seems to be a corruption of a Spanish word for “island.”)

As long as we were in the Keys, we saw numbers of vulture-like objects.

We stopped at the Key Deer Refuge on Pine Key and saw four or five of the deer.

I’m in Wisconsin

LotStreetWiz and I drove to Wisconsin over the last few days: first from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie and then from the Soo to Madison. We’ve seen a lot of wildlife (an unfortunate amount of it roadkill), lots of rocks, and innumerable trees. I wish I’d brought my tree book. Someone is house-sitting for us, so the cats are not alone.

Tomorrow and Sunday, LotStreetWiz will be out biking. I need to buy a new camera; then I’m thinking of going to the Geology Museum.

I’m wondering if there are any science-bloggers in the area.

Minnesota’s Museum of Questionable Medical Devices

I was watching TV Ontario, and it was showing failed military and medical devices. Did you know that there’s a a Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minnesota?