9 Best Train Journeys in the World

posted by: Alex Ion

In a modern world where traveling between destinations is viewed as a waste of time and resources, it is hard to actually comprehend the beauty of some of the most spectacular rides on the planet. Far less comfortable, yet far more beautiful and interesting, the time spent between two destinations is equally captivating and offers many sights and sounds.

While we are very much in a century where we have ‘no time to stand and stare’, there are still some awesome train rides across the globe where the trip itself turns into a destination. So how about hopping on these 10 grand train journeys?

Glacier Express

Arguably the slowest ‘express’ on the planet, the 180 mile ride on this delightful route takes a good 8 hours. Not that we are complaining about the pace as this offers you loads of time to catch a glimpse of the magical panorama that lies on its path, which links the two mountain resorts of St. Moritz and Zermatt in the Swiss Alps. 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and an altitude of 6,670 feet make this train ride similar to an expedition through fairyland.

Images courtesy of Puddles, +Jun+, janetmck

Spectacular, stunning and picture perfect, this is a trip that the shutter bugs will really love!

Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Images by Stef Flater (1 + 2)

Linking some of the best cities of Europe including London, Venice, Rome, Budapest or Prague, the Orient Express is the most charming way to travel on tracks. With scores of movies, novels and romantic Hollywood scenes captured on this luxurious trip, this is one for those with deep pockets. The three day trip past the beautiful countryside of France, Switzerland and Austria will cost well over 2,000 Euros for the old-age charm of the Orient Express.

Pride of Africa

The Pride of Africa is a train journey that no nature lover should ever miss if they wish to explore the beauty, majesty and the hidden grandeur of the spectacular Dark Continent at a leisurely pace. Apart from the impeccable comfort it has to offer, the once in a year trip planned on the ‘Pride of Africa’ will take you on a 14-day epic expedition through Cape Town, Dar Es Salaam, Kimberley, Pretoria, the Kruger National Park, Beit Bridge, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Lusaka and through Tanzania to Dar Es Salaam.

Images by Rovos Rail

Billed as the most luxurious train in the world, you’d better not lose the opportunity if you’re planning a romantic vacation through the heart of Southern Africa.

Eurostar

Image by lewishamdreamer

While not many will really be happy with the fact that you get to spend plenty of time in the Eurostar under the sea, it sure offers a great mix of comfort and class. Apart from getting you to your chosen destination in a pretty short time, it is a much better option compared to choosing the flight between London and Paris. Innovative …

Flam Railway

Remember the awesome Norwegian Fjords? Well, here is a train ride through the world’s longest fjord Sognefjord, where on a 20 kilometer trip you’ll get to see an amazing descent from an altitude of almost 3,000 feet into the fjords of Flam. The ride looks both enthralling and hair-raising with its narrow passage way and the unforgettable sights.

Images by Sugeo, Laurakgibb, kurlvink

A popular tourist attraction in Norway, this is all about exploring unadulterated beauty of nature at a leisurely pace.

Palace on Wheels

Images courtesy of nzer and rdtc.in

Step on the Palace on Wheels and you will find exactly what you have been promised with the name. The train that starts from Delhi in India and ends up in the royal state of Rajasthan, offers complete luxury on tracks, much like the pampering enjoyed by royal kings in the days long gone. Just to roll back time, a steam engine is used to pull the train initially out of Delhi, adding further to the experience. An elephant welcome in Jaipur, lunch at the Lake Palace in Udaipur, a camel safari near Jaisalmer and an afternoon at the Taj Mahal; the Palace on Wheels is the most comfortable way to explore India.

Eastern & Oriental Express

All images courtesy of Orient-Express Images

Stretching between the ultra-modern Singapore and Bangkok, and traveling through lush green tropical forests, the Eastern and Oriental Express is modern, stylish and comfortable.

Apart from all the delights it offers in terms of cuisine and hospitality, the train journey presents a perfect window into South-East Asia, its changing topography and the contrast between its urban present and its naturally-endowed past.

Royal Scotsman

If you are getting on board the Royal Scotsman, then you must have really deep pockets - it’s the most expensive train ride on the planet. Just consider the fact that a 4-day trip on the Royal Scotsman costs more than an entire 19-day first-class trip on the Trans-Siberian, and you will get the idea. The observation car accommodates 36 passengers (yes, only 36 passengers allowed) in comfortable armchairs along with cabins specially designed for dining and other purposes.

Images by lolothian, christymacintosh, jeffmcneil

The train pulls over at night when you need to sleep and while the trip offers a great passage through little known waterfalls, mountains and valleys, it is obviously not for everyone.

Trans-Siberian Railway

There is hardly any doubt that a 6000 mile ride across the vastness of Russia that carries you over a distance of one-third the planet is the grand daddy of them all. The Trans-Siberian train ride is a journey that has already achieved a mythical status for the vastness it encompasses and the magnitude of brilliance that it has in store.

Images by yeowatzup, brostad, 14589121@N00 (1 +2)

From Vladivostok across Siberia to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg, the 19-day ride offers more than you could ever find on any other train. Carriages once used by the Politburo are fitted with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting/dining-room, complete with private chef. Carrying you in comfort across seven time zones, this is the ultimate experience on tracks.

It is a unique feeling to carry home when your whole journey becomes your destination as there is never a dull moment on your trip. Instead of waiting for fun and good times to start rolling as you sit in your airline seat, the great train journeys turn every moment into a memory you can cherish for a lifetime.

Cocaine now Cheaper than Beer and Wine

A line of cocaine is now cheaper than a pint of lager or a glass of wine, official figures have disclosed.

By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent

45 kilos of Cocaine Photo: PA

The Home Office has admitted that the street price of both cocaine and heroin has fallen by nearly half in the last ten years, making the most dangerous illegal drugs cheaper than they have ever been.

Based on reports from police forces, the Home Office said that cocaine is now being sold for as little as £20 a gram in some parts of the country.

The most common price for the drug is £40 per gram. Home Office figures for 1998 show the average price was £77.

A gram of heroin can now be bought for as little as £25, with the average price somewhere between £40 and £50 per gram. In 1998, the average was £74.

The Home Office figures are based on data collected from police forces and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

According to DrugScope, a charity that provides research and advice on drugs policy, gram of cocaine can make between 10 and 20 lines for snorting, depending on its strength.

That means a line of cocaine can cost as little as £1, with an average price per line of between £2 and £4.

The average price of a pint of lager is around £2.75, although some pub chains have reacted to the credit crunch by cutting the price of a pint as low as 99p. A glass of wine typically costs £3.50.

The figures were uncovered by the Tories, who said they proved that Labour had failed to stem the flow of Class A drugs into the UK.

James Brokenshire, the Conservative shadow home affairs minister, called the figures "startling."

He said: "These startling figures show the reality of drug use in Britain. Price falls of this nature indicate that the supply of hard drugs into this country has jumped. It's a serious indictment of Labour's failure to combat drug crime and stem the flow of drugs onto our streets."

Less cocaine is being intercepted on Britain's borders. The Home Office figures last year showed that the total weight of cocaine seized actually fell by 15 per cent a year, and it has halved in five years.

In 2003, 6,813 kg of cocaine was seized by police and customs officers in England and Wales. In 2006/07, it was 3,191kg. The last time cocaine seizures were smaller was 1999.

The Home Office suggested that drug prices may be falling partly because fewer people are buying drugs.

A spokesperson said: "A reduction in price may be associated with increased competition or reduced demand, not just increased availability.

"The British Crime Survey data shows that among 16-59 year olds Class A drug use in the past year declined from 3.4% in 2006/07 to 3.0% in 2007/08.

"In relation to cocaine the average purity at street level has declined continuously for a number of years, from 51% in 2003 to 34% in 2007."

May I Have This Dance? Neigh... (Seriously, Great Pic)

ngm.nationalgeographic.com — Stallions fighting on North Dakota reservation. Enlargeable, wallpaper.

The World's Best Piano Playing Cat

Features all-new footage and more duets. Better than the original! This is not a trick taught to Nora. She began sitting at the piano at about one-year-old. She's almost four now. She plays only when the mood strikes her, which is usually several time a times a day for short periods.

© 2007/2008 Yow!/Alexander, Nora The Piano Cat, LLC

A DVD of Nora's YouTube videos in full-size (for the big screen) is now available on Amazon.com or on CreateSpace.com The three videos included on the DVD are "Nora: Practice Makes Purr-fect," "Nora: The Sequel," and "Nora Calls The Piano Tuner."

Joaquin Phoenix's Rap Career Is Not A Hoax

By Katey Rich:

I've sat in a room with Joaquin Phoenix, smelled his cigarette smoke and seen through the dark shades to the once-familiar eyes underneath. And no, I still have no idea what the hell is going on with him. But, and I swear I'm not just saying this because I might wind up in his documentary, I'm convinced he's not a hoax.

Surely you've heard about it all by now-- the slurred red carpet announcement that he was done acting, the messy Las Vegas rap debut, and especially last night's disastrous Letterman appearance. Joaquin Phoenix's career has taken a sharp left turn, to a place that apparently bans razors and combs and considers a rap career a perfectly viable option for a white, Oscar-nominated actor raised by hippies.

Yesterday my online colleagues and I were gathered for the junket for Two Lovers the movie that Phoenix is ostensibly out promoting. What you saw on Letterman is essentially what we got-- a shambling, mumbling cipher, masked by sunglasses and facial hair, who showed no real interest in talking about the movie he was being paid to promote. It's unfair to accuse him of drug use, but it's a fair guess that some were involved. Because Casey Affleck and his crew were there filming the interview for the documentary about Phoenix's new career, we indulged him in his desire to talk about rapping, and maybe because of that, we got more out of him than Letterman did. He was talkative, almost friendly, admitting he's planning to collaborate with Diddy and talking about his plans for dance songs, even "sexy songs," on his rap album. He mentioned how much he hates promoting films, which we had pretty much guessed, but also trashed acting in general, saying that talking about your emotional connection to your character is just something you say "when you're trying to get nominated."

The only bit of that open disdain he showed Letterman-- and Letterman shoved right back at him-- came when one reporter dared to ask the question on everyone's mind: basically, "Is this a put on?" Phoenix acted as if he'd been slapped, as if he hadn't heard the question in dozens of interviews already. "It's hard not to get offended," he responded, as if his dedication to rap throughout his life should be enough evidence that this is all for real. And while he seemed to shrug it off, and the interview proceeded however bizarrely from there, Affleck jumped in at the end, telling the reporter she was so busy being "savvy" that she wasn't able to accept the honesty behind it (at least, I think that's what he was going for). I'm not sure who's drinking the Kool-Aid and who's serving it, but neither man seems capable of understanding the main reaction this whole rap career has gotten: total skepticism..

The junket proceeded from there, and we talked to Two Lovers director James Gray and co-star Vinessa Shaw, both of whom seemed baffled but otherwise unwilling to talk about Phoenix's behavior. Just when we thought it was OK to go, an hour after we'd expected thanks to Phoenix's late arrival, Casey Affleck came back in, sat us back down, and asked us to explain just why we didn't believe that his brother-in-law Joaquin was being anything less than genuine.

Where to begin, right? Casey listened attentively as the eight or so journalists left tried to make our case, citing everything from Joaquin's weird appearance and slurred speech to the checkered history of white rappers. But at no point did he seem to drop his position that we were the crazy ones, that people change careers all the time and Joaquin's rap career is no less unbelievable than, say, Scarlett Johansson dropping an album. Why couldn't we just be happy for him and let him do his thing? Haven't we ourselves ever wanted to do something different? (To prove this point, he actually went around the room and had us list all the jobs we've had before, and what we really want to be doing).

But amid the genuine dismay he seemed to have at our cynical questions, Casey gave an explanation that may have cracked the case. He blamed reality TV for our conception that everything has to be 100% fake or 100% real-- "there's a million shades of gray in-between." And that, more than anything seems to be the answer we're looking for. Joaquin Phoenix really does want to be a rapper, but he also really wants the attention that comes from appearing to have a breakdown in public. I told Casey that I was skeptical of how publicized the whole thing is, how Joaquin announced his retirement on the red carpet, rapped in Vegas for the first time only weeks later, and now has a documentary crew following him, assuring that we'll be hearing about MC JP or whatever for at least the next year. But given that Joaquin has willingly participated in the publicity tour for Two Lovers, all while barely talking about the movie itself, the publicity seems to be what it's all about. If he had cut an album in the privacy of his home and told us about it six months later, that would be beside the point. It's about the rapping, but it's also about subverting every expectation we have of the stern-jawed, Oscar-nominated actor.

So is it a stunt, or is it for real? As Casey hinted, it's a little bit of both. Joaquin Phoenix is never going to "break character," or admit the rapping was all a hoax, because it's not. Phoenix really does want to be a rapper, but who knows if it's because that's his lifelong artistic dream, or because it's the last thing we would have expected. The rapping, the beard, the Casey Affleck documentary-- it's all part of a package telling us "You think you know Joaquin Phoenix, but you have no fucking idea."

I was exhausted at the end of the day, slightly in shock that I'd spent the last hour being grilled by Casey Affleck, and more sure than ever that, whatever else is going on, we're not being punk'd by Joaquin Phoenix. Whether it's drugs talking, or an actual nervous breakdown, or a Britney-esque desire to distance himself as much as possible from his matinee idol potential, Phoenix feels everything he's doing as genuinely as we might have thought he felt his characters in his movies. Acting isn't really him, he told us, but this-- whatever this is-- is real. For lack of a better option, I choose to believe him.

Germany Aims Big with a 960-Megawatt Offshore Wind Farm

by Kristie Wilson

When it comes to offshore wind farms in the North Sea, bigger is certainly better! RWE Innogy, a German-based company, recently acquired the rights to a 960 Megawatt offshore wind project from ENOVA Energieanlagen GmbH, a subsidiary of the ENOVA Group. The offshore wind farm, named Innogy Nordsee 1, is anticipated to run just under 4,000 full-load hours and with the ability to supply over 3 TWh (Terawatt-hours) of electricity per year! Consisting of up to 250 wind turbines planned, each with a capacity of 5 to 6 Megawatts, this will be Germany’s largest offshore wind farm.

This gigantic offshore wind farm will span an area of around 56 square-miles at a location just 25 miles north of the North Sea island of Juist. RWE Innogy and Enova are investing approximately €2.8 billion into the project. Pending approval, its initial preparations will start in 2010 and its first wind turbines could start running as early as 2011. The project expected to be completed by 2015.

RWE’s construction of Innogy Nordsee 1 marks an important step towards achieving the climate and protection targets set by Germany and EU. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, the wind farm alone will avoid approximately 2.6 million tones of CO2 annually—a pretty nice number for a country who has pledged a key role in reducing emissions for the EU. RWE has other ambitious wind farm projects planned for countries such as Poland and Wales, and with competitors from neighboring countries, it doesn’t seem like RWE has any plans to slow down anytime soon.

RWE states: Some 1000 MW of wind power on the high seas – that is the largest single project RWE has undertaken so far in the area of renewables. Even in these times of economic crisis, RWE Innogy is consciously stepping up its investment pace.”

+ RWE Innogy

Via Treehugger

Left: Wind Farm at North Hoyle. Right: Construction of the Rhyl Flats offshore wind farm

Biggest Solar Deal Ever Announced — We're Talking Gigawatts

By Alexis Madrigal

The largest series of solar installations in history, more than 1,300 megawatts, is planned for the desert outside Los Angeles, according to a new deal between the utility Southern California Edison and solar power plant maker, BrightSource.

The momentous deal will deliver more electricity than even the largest nuclear plant, spread out among seven facilities, the first of which will start up in 2013. When fully operational, the companies say the facility will provide enough electricity to power 845,000 homes — more than exist in San Francisco — though estimates like that are notoriously squirrely.

The technology isn't the familiar photovoltaics — the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity — but solar thermal power, which concentrates the sun's rays to create steam in a boiler and spin a turbine.

"We do see solar as the large untapped resource, particularly in Southern California," said Stuart Hemphill, vice president of renewable energy and power at Southern California Edison. "It's barely tapped and we're eager to see it expand in our portfolio."

BrightSource is the reincarnation of Luz International, which built the only currently operating solar thermal facility during the 1980s in the Mojave Desert. After natural gas and energy prices plunged in 1985, that operation became unprofitable. The group's engineers and founders moved the business to Israel, where they continued to work on their technology.

The new deal breaks the company's own record for the largest ever solar deal. The new installations, when completed, will produce 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Previously, they'd cut a deal to deliver 900 megawatts of power to the Northern California utility, PG&E.

"Coupled with our earlier partnership with PG&E, this agreement proves that the energy industry recognizes the important role that solar thermal will play in the energy future," John Woolard, CEO of BrightSource, said in a press conference with reporters.

While Brightsource is a leader in the field, a variety of other companies compete in the solar thermal space. Google.org and other investors have backed eSolar's with $130 million funding. Abu Dhabi's clean-tech fund, Masdar, has funded a $1.2 billion solar thermal company called Torresol. Yet another player, Abengoa, recently signed a $4 billion deal with Arizona Public Utilities, and Stirling Energy Systems, a company that has adapted the Stirling Engine, a 200-year-old invention, for concentrated solar power, even pulled in a $100 million investment.

The first of the seven installations will be in Ivanpah, California and will be rated at 100 megawatts of peak power. The companies expect it to produce 286,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year. When all the installations are finished, they'll stretch over 10,500 acres of land.

Southern California Edison's Hemphill said that the new plants would provide a valuable hedge against volatile natural gas prices, noting that his company had seen natural gas prices as low as $4 per thousand million cubic feet (a standard industry measure) and as high as $16. Given the variability of natural gas pricing, Hemphill said that his company did not expect the solar thermal electricity to exceed the market cost of electricity in California.

The 1980s-era solar thermal plants use the oldest solar thermal technology around, known as a parabolic trough. Mirrors shaped like a paper-towel roll cut in half concentrate the sun's rays on a liquid. That heat can be transformed into various types of energy. The Luz fields made electricity, but Frank Shuman built a plant based on this principle to pump water in Egypt in the first decade of the 20th century.

The new design sounds more exciting. Mirrors that track the sun — heliostats — sit in a massive field around a tower with a boiler. All those mirrors concentrate the sun's heat on the boiler, which makes steam and drives a turbine.

Solar thermal is seen as a promising source of energy for city-scale power because it works on very well established principles. Photovoltaics have come down in price — and thin-film plastic solar cells could get even cheaper — but the conversion of sunlight to electricity remains a novel source of energy. The first working cells were only built half a century ago, and they were truly something new in the world.

Steam-driven turbines, on the other hand, make almost 90 percent of the world's electricity and their ancestry stretches back to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Solar thermal engineers, then, can use the knowledge gained from more than a century of tinkering at coal, natural gas, and nuclear fission plants.

Baby Scorpions? Awww HELLLLLLLL No...

FBI To Tackle Baffling Super Bowl Porn Case

By Rick Chandler

Never fear America: The FBI is making sure that there will never again be an incident of Super Bowl TV porn. However, all anthrax letters will be delivered as usual.

Don't tell me that you've already forgotten how about 30 seconds of a porn movie made its way onto the Super Bowl broadcast shown to about 80,000 Comcast cable subscribers in the Tucson area. Comcast is saying that it was "a malicious act" perpetrated by an outside party (those terrorist bastards!), and have vowed to catch the culprits.

But so far, the hacker(s) have eluded the net. So in comes the FBI's renowned TV porn squad.

"We have shared all of our information on this situation with the FBI and will continue to provide our full cooperation to them throughout their investigation," company spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said in a statement e-mailed to the Star.

Meanwhile, on Tristan Kingsley's web site (NSFW):

So as you all may have guessed I have been getting bombarded about the incident involving me and a porn clip being shown during the Super Bowl. Im not going to lie, I don't mind everyone asking how I feel about what happend or asking my opinion on it. But the one thing I do mind is some have been asking questions about my kids. Yes I do have kids and that is all anyone in the public needs to know. Please do NOT ask me their names. Do NOT ask me where they live. Do NOT ask me how often I see them. Those are personal things about MINORS that is no ones business but mine!

Then, just below that statement, a graphic with the headline:

Holy s**t! Watch me play with myself!

FBI Investigating Cable Porn Intrusion [Arizona Daily Star]

Another Reason to Upgrade to First Class

This is why Chismillionaire flies First Class or Private....

Dutch Company One Step Closer to Private Moon Mission

Odyssey Moon secures Dutch payload.

Ashley Yeager

A spectrometer meant to fly to Mars on a European mission in 2016 will get to the Moon first. The Dutch team that is building the instrument last week announced it would send a scaled-up version, dubbed MoonShot, to the lunar surface by 2011 with Odyssey Moon, a company headquartered in the Isle of Man, UK.

The MoonOne lander aims to fly cargo to the Moon for cash.Odyssey Moon

If it works, the private MoonOne lander and its successors could serve scientists much as a commercial trucking company serves wholesalers, providing a platform to ferry science instruments and other payloads to the lunar surface.

"The intention is to bring on a new age," says Alan Stern, science mission director for Odyssey Moon and former science chief at NASA. That could mean new opportunities for scientists whose instruments were cut or scaled back in government missions, or whose nations do not have their own lunar spacecraft. "It's an ongoing business that will make sense many years in the future," Stern says.

MoonShot was originally designed to look for organic compounds in the Martian soil using two different types of laser-based spectrometry. The version that will go to Mars on the European Space Agency's ExoMars mission has been cut back to include only a Raman spectrometer, which uses a laser beam to detect chemical signatures, including organic compounds, in surface samples. The version flying privately to the Moon, however, will also have a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, which will scan the lunar soil and can detect heavy metals. "You shine the laser and just find out what's there," says Erik Laan, an engineer who helped build the instrument at TNO Science and Industry in Delft, the Netherlands.

MoonShot would be the first Dutch instrument on the lunar surface. A consortium of European companies, including Philips Applied Technologies, Dutch consultants Space Horizon, the Free University in Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology, will pitch in to pay Odyssey Moon an unspecified amount — although less than US$10 million — to transport the instrument.

The MoonOne lander is already slated to carry two other commercial payloads. These include a precursor to the International Lunar Observatory, a communications dish at the lunar south pole envisioned by a Hawaii-based non-profit organization, and packages from Texas-based company Celestis, which acts as a broker for ferrying cremated remains and other relics to the Moon.

Odyssey Moon has also signed up Paul Spudis, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, who serves as the company's chief scientist. And it has partnered with NASA to model its lunar lander after the US space agency's common spacecraft bus, which uses a modular design that can be manipulated into either a lander or an orbiter.

Robert Richards, Odyssey Moon's founder, describes it as a logistics company with a business model similar to that of FedEx. "We want to get customer packages to the Moon," he says, "and we don't really care what we use to do it as long as it gets there reliably and cost-effectively." Eventually, such private craft might end up helping to resupply government-initiated efforts, such as the proposed International Lunar Network, a series of stations containing scientific instruments that will be positioned at different places across the lunar surface.

Odyssey Moon and 15 other teams are also vying for the Google Lunar X Prize, a US$20-million race to be the first privately funded spacecraft to relay high-definition video, images and data from a lunar lander back to Earth. The teams vary in their backgrounds, interests and long-term goals. A team named Next Giant Leap, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Space Systems Laboratory and MicroSat Systems of Littleton, Colorado, among others, is focusing on meeting the prize's minimum criteria and has no plans yet to develop a commercial craft of its own. Astrobotic Technology, founded by robotics specialist William Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, plans to launch exploratory missions, first to the Apollo 11 site and then to the lunar poles.

Competitors for the Google Lunar X Prize have until 31 December 2014 to stake their claim on the cash awards and the Moon.

Ferrari FXX Under Some Seriously Hard Braking

By The Auto Insider

We love Ferrari. We love the Enzo. We LOVE the FXX. We love fire and glowing red brakes. There's nothing in this picture that's not full of win. Did we mention we LOVE the FXX?

Why Can't We Take This To LeMons?



Bonus Shot Since We Love Ya:



Matt Farah with Garage 419 checks out the Cavallino Classic Ferrari Track Day in Palm Beach, Florida and checks out the Ferrari FXX here.

[arthomobiles.fr via carlounge]

Beer and the president: A new political reality?

By Rex W. Huppke |Tribune staff report

Barack Obama shares a beer toast with a host of supporters at Bethlehem Brew Works in Bethlehem, Pa. as he campaigns for president early in 2008. (Philadelphia Inquirer photo by David Swanson / April 20, 2008)

It seems a waste, but people keep spilling beer on America's political stage.

Just as the nation had begun to black out memories of the overused campaign term "Joe Six-Pack," an Indiana woman this week suggested to President Obama that he sit down for a beer with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity. The president, knowing the importance of presidential beer liking, wisely replied that he's "always up for a beer."

Somehow the humble beer, and the ability to sit down and drink one, has been elevated from a totem of the tailgater to a prerequisite for the presidency.

"Beer has become kind of the cultural leveler in our society," noted Ken Janda, professor emeritus of political science at Northwestern University. "It can go across all classes of society – it's a symbol of equality. You'd never say, 'He's a nice guy to have a glass of wine with.'"

At least you'd never say that about someone you wanted to be president.

This past campaign involved ample references to average, beer-drinking Americans and concerns about which candidate would best get along with them, as if the Oval Office might be turned into an after-hours bar for longshoremen. Hillary Clinton at one point drank a shot of whiskey and a beer with a group of Hoosiers, just to flaunt her love of malt beverages and people who aren't as rich as she is.

And let's not forget the previous presidential campaign in which about 60 percent of undecided voters conceded they'd rather have a beer with George W. Bush than with John Kerry. (The irony there, of course, was that Bush doesn't drink and Kerry, if he had a couple beers, might have actually become interesting.)

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Americans hoisted their presidents off a pedestal and plunked them down on a bar stool, but presidential scholar Bert Rockman posits it may have begun with President Eisenhower. He was certainly one of the first presidents widely referred to by a nickname – in his case, Ike – marking a decided shift away from public reverence toward the office.

With the increase in television coverage, John F. Kennedy became a media darling, and most presidents that followed – think Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton – trended toward some form of folksy charm.

George W. Bush seemed to mark the culmination of our perception of the president as a regular guy, and by 2005 he was duly satirized in The Onion under the headline: "Long-Awaited Beer With Bush Really Awkward, Voter Reports."

In the fake story, the voter recounts: "Then George mentioned that he used to be a cheerleader at Yale. I didn't know what to say to that one, so I just drank the rest of my beer real fast."

Real-life beer aficionados are pleased to see their beverage of choice fermenting its way into the world of politics, even if they can't fully explain the phenomenon.

"I don't know exactly what that special quality is," said Patrick Gallagher, a Chicago-based Internet marketer and founder of the Web site chicagobeerbars.com. "Obviously its got alcohol, so there's a draw there."

Indeed.

Gallagher also noted that craft beers and microbreweries have introduced beer to an even broader demographic, cementing its status as a drink embraced by an overwhelming majority of Americans. So perhaps in seeking a woman or man of the people these days, it's not so far-fetched that they be judged in part on their ability to imbibe communally.

Gallagher certainly doesn't think so. If he were to belly up to a bar with Obama, he'd order a locally brewed Three Floyd's Alpha King Pale Ale.

"It would be interesting to see if the president has a particular taste, like a style of beer or a particular brand," Gallagher daydreamed. "I know his preferences toward food run pretty fancy. I have to believe he's probably had some pretty good beers."

rhuppke@tribune.com

House Passes Revised Stimulus, Now on to Senate

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In a 246 to 183 vote largely along party lines, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a $787.2 billion economic recovery package that was drawn up, amended and negotiated in record time.

No Republicans voted for the bill, while seven Democrats voted against it. When the House voted on its own version of a stimulus bill a few weeks ago, no Republicans voted for that measure and 11 Democrats had also voted against it.

The Senate is expected to vote on the measure Friday evening. It, too, is expected to pass the bill, but with no more than three Republicans supporting it.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon.

"The goal at the heart of this plan is to create jobs. Not just any jobs, but jobs doing the work America needs done: repairing our infrastructure, modernizing our schools and hospitals, and promoting the clean, alternative energy sources that will help us finally declare independence from foreign oil," President Obama said Friday morning.

The Obama economic team estimates the stimulus plan will create or save between 3 million and 4 million jobs.

"We've done something today that's transformational for the nation," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a press conference after the vote.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wisc., characterized the bill as "the largest change in domestic policy since the 1930s."

The bill's likely final passage nonetheless represents far less than the bipartisan victory Obama had hoped for weeks ago, a hope he tabled as it became clear that Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats were adamantly opposed to the size and contents of the bill.

Republican critics believe there are more targeted and effective ways to create jobs than the measures in the bill, including more spending on infrastructure and more tax relief.

"Republicans are not about saying 'No' but about saying 'Yes' to solutions that put Americans back to work," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., during a last round of debate on Friday. "[This legislation] will not grow our economy. It will grow our government."

The compromise bill was crafted after intensive negotiations in recent days between the House, Senate and White House, although Republicans said repeatedly they felt excluded from the process. And on Friday, several said they did not think it was fair that they were being asked to vote on a 1,000-page-plus bill that was posted online only late Thursday night.

How the bill breaks down

The package devotes $308.3 billion -- or 39% -- to appropriations spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That includes $120 billion on infrastructure and science and more than $30 billion on energy-related infrastructure projects, according to key congressional committees.

It devotes another $267 billion -- or 34% -- on direct spending, including increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, CBO said.

And it provides $212 billion -- or 27% -- for tax breaks for individuals and businesses, although the biggest piece of that is for individuals. (Here's a quick breakdown of those breaks.)

Depending on how tax measures are categorized, the percentage of the bill devoted to tax relief is 35%, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Unlike the CBO, the committee counts all portions of tax credits that are refundable. A refundable credit is one that may be paid to tax filers even if the credit exceeds a tax filer's liability. In other words, it is money the government needs to spend. The CBO, by contrast, treats that money as an outlay.

Republicans have advocated for more tax relief in the bill -- they wanted at least 40% -- and they often oppose tax credits going to those who pay less in income tax than they receive in refunds.

Democrats counter that the lowest-income families do pay money into the system by way of payroll tax for Social Security and through sales taxes. And they note that it is those low-income families most likely to quickly spend any tax relief they get, thereby making it more stimulative for the economy.

What it can - and can't do

For months, economists -- both liberal and conservative -- have urged lawmakers to act quickly to help stem the economic downturn. They argue that while tax cuts can be put out more quickly than infrastructure spending, they may not be as stimulative as spending because tax filers are likely to save at least a portion of what they receive.

There also has been debate over how large the total package should be. Many economists think it should be larger -- to help combat what is expected to be a $2 trillion shortfall in the country's output this year and next. But at this point, though they're not enamored with every provision in the bill -- they say it's necessary to do something.

Proponents of the bill aren't promising the economic recovery package will be a panacea for the economy. "No one thinks this is the answer," said House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

But, they say, it's needed to stem the downturn and ease the financial strains hurting Americans. Indeed, Obama's economic team last month said they expect that the unemployment rate likely will go up in the near term but having a stimulus package could bring it down to around 7% by the end of 2010. That's slightly below the rate of 7.6% today.

Iceland’s Gorgeous Passive Solar Hof House

by Alexandra Kain

Deep in the northern chill of Iceland, just outside the arctic circle, the Hof House sits snugly within its landscape. Built on an existing estate, Studio Granada Architects salvaged whatever materials possible from the site to be incorporated into the new residence, converting telegraph poles into a sun screen and basalt pillars into stepping stones. Even the grass on the green roof came from local site leftovers after clearing way for its foundation. Designed for the extreme weather conditions of the Skagafjörður Fjord, the Hof House relies on passive solar design, geothermal heating, and some pretty hefty concrete walls.

The Hof House’s exterior cedar walls hug the massive concrete structural walls and will age gracefully with the passing seasons. The hexagonal shape formed by slices of the salvaged basalt pillars are repeated inside, bringing a continuity of design from the outside in. Geothermal heating comes up from the ground, warming the stone floors and providing heat and electricity throughout the house. The remaining energy needs are sufficed by hydroelectric power. The windows are oriented to not only capture the Southern sun, but also to create a frame for the magnificent surroundings of the cliff islands of Drangey and Málmey and the hills of Þórðarhöfði.

Studio Granada’s Hof House has been nominated for and awarded myriad prizes for its design, including the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture: the Mies van der Rohe Award for 2009.

+ Studio Granada Architects

Via Noticias Arquitectura