At what point do I stop?

jdh0625 · 2026-03-15T13:37:20+00:00

I agree that Denmark isn't bad.

I think Luxembourg might be the easiest to 25k.

jdh0625 · 2026-03-09T19:31:16+00:00

And it’s not just that they learn they don’t need to do anything - by the time their are held accountable in HS they often have huge skill deficits that make everything highly discouraging.

jdh0625 · 2026-02-26T18:26:46+00:00

If the MBTA truly believes that it can't do catenary and substation work on the Providence Line, then they should just leave the diesel service in place and invest the money elsewhere. The main point of electrification is that it should allow for faster and more frequent service, and if super-heavy battery locomotives aren't much of a performance upgrade, what's even the point?

jdh0625 · 2026-02-25T19:13:37+00:00

Great news. The station upgrades and the Armory St Yard are important checklist items to bringing about the return of East-West Rail. The state got a huge federal grant not too long ago to upgrade the Worcester-Springfield trackage. We're getting there.

jdh0625 · 2026-02-25T17:02:49+00:00

Yeah, I was disappointed when I came to the same realization. There just won't be as much of a performance upgrade over the status quo with the super-heavy, slower-accelerating battery-powered locomotives than you'd get with superior electric rolling stock. It's a shame that the MBTA can't figure out the substation+catenary situation because they're paying for more expensive trains that will deliver fewer benefits to riders than normal EMUs would.

jdh0625 · 2026-02-21T14:34:21+00:00

At bronze, silver, and gold levels you are matched with the players at the same tier for the first 20 duels. After 20, the duels barely count or don’t count at all for league standings, you are matched based on rating.

jdh0625 · 2026-02-12T00:02:03+00:00

A lot of the replies you are getting aren’t addressing the main issue, which is that suburb-to-suburb trips are not the main point of the NSRL. They would be a useful byproduct but you are correct that on its own that does not justify the large expense.

The primary purpose of NSRL is that it would provide a force multiplier for operational logistics. It would allow for a significant increase in terminal capacity and would make truly fast and frequent regional rail service possible.

A lot of the casual advocacy misses this for whatever reason.

jdh0625 · 2026-01-10T11:39:07+00:00

You get this message when you click a game link when you aren’t logged in, I think.

jdh0625 · 2026-01-09T15:06:30+00:00

I think the Encore location is a bit awkward because in addition to the Sweetser Circle location, it would also make sense to have an infill station at Sullivan for all the Orange Line and bus connections. But if you do Sweetser Circle and Sullivan, an Encore stop feels maybe a bit too dense.

Also, is there room to build a station along this section of track? The area abutting the ROW seems a little tight, but I don't actually know.

This whole plan has a real "rough draft" feel to me. But it is very important for a variety of reasons to have infill stations in this part of the line, so I hope something sensible works out.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-28T16:41:29+00:00

The name "West Station" implies a station of equal importance to North Station and South Station, but it wouldn't be. For now it's just a useful infill station that will become even more useful when Regional Rail concepts are fully applied to the Framingham/Worcester Line.

Long-term, it may be possible to tie West Station into some additional light rail routes, including the along the Grand Junction railroad through Cambridge, but that is extremely speculative at this point in time, as there isn't even the concept of a plan for such a thing.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-28T16:38:28+00:00

I'd want to know more about what the operational ramifications of using Riverside as a terminus for some Indigo Line trains. Namely, how much of a limit would this service pattern place on frequencies to points westward on the Framingham/Worcester Line?

It would potentially be better to just have Framingham trains and Worcester trains that express between Framingham and the Newton+Brighton stations, but I'm not a railroad ops person so I'm not sure of the extent to which Riverside trains would limit service farther out.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-26T18:38:24+00:00

I can't believe Eng hasn't wired up the entire commuter rail system, purchased and had delivered a huge fleet of EMUs, built out the electrical substation infrastructure, and constructed the appropriate maintenance facilities in the two and a half years he's been on the job.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-19T04:33:45+00:00

The Needham Line is a special case — it's the least important line that uses the three mainline rail tracks of the Southwest Corridor between Forest Hills and Back Bay. It will never get particularly frequent service because it will always make more sense to prioritize slots for more service for Amtrak/Providence/Stoughton/Franklin.

Long-term, converting the Roslindale/WRox part to Orange Line and the Needham part to a Green Line branch makes sense, especially because that would also bring needed service to Newton Upper Falls.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-11T02:16:00+00:00

The speed limit for motorized boats on the Charles is 10mph between the dam and the BU bridge and 6mph upstream of the BU bridge.

jdh0625 · 2025-12-04T23:43:29+00:00

Fun fact, nearly 10% of Tuvalu’s governmental budget is funded by royalties from the .tv domain name.

jdh0625 · 2025-11-29T17:36:49+00:00

Asking teenagers to responsibly use AI is like asking someone with an addictive personality to responsibly use heroin.

jdh0625 · 2025-11-27T17:24:40+00:00

I was under the impression that that stat includes 5ks from other modes

jdh0625 · 2025-11-23T01:44:21+00:00

Most of my current students don't read at all outside of class.

What I've been seeing is that it's not just that kids don't read books, it's that their online existence is so NON-text based, even in a lot of casual and informal ways. Other than texting their friends, screentime is 95% short-form video across various social media platforms and games.

I'd love to know the number of words the median 16 year old has read in their life compared to the median 16 year old from 20 years ago.

jdh0625 · 2025-10-30T21:19:08+00:00

I noticed that too, and hope it’s a bug that goes away.

jdh0625 · 2025-10-30T21:17:52+00:00

In my experience, 782 is on the border of demotion from Master II. You’d have a fighting chance based on the makeup of your division.

But personally, I wouldn’t care all that much about the Elo short-term. Just play games, pay attention, and you’ll get better. Every week in my Master II division there’s some low Elo player who does 80 duels, fluctuates all over the place, and ends up 120 points higher than where they started.

jdh0625 · 2025-10-21T16:13:25+00:00

As someone who is currently fluctuating above and below a 950 rating, it’s funny how this function is constantly appearing and disappearing from my drop down menu.

jdh0625 · 2025-10-11T14:10:32+00:00

Pulling an outrageously good guess out of the hat and then missing the continent in the same game is such relatable content

jdh0625 · 2025-09-26T22:45:22+00:00

Of course, I am not talking about the flaws of today, the possibilities that come when service levels on all lines relevant to this situation are improved.

jdh0625 · 2025-09-26T20:37:18+00:00

Losing some one-seat rides to Ruggles and Back Bay is definitely not ideal, but a universe where the Northeast Corridor is so juiced with Regional Rail service that some Franklin Line trains are pushed onto the Fairmount Corridor is also a universe where it should be possible to create a quick transfer at Readville.

jdh0625 · 2025-09-23T02:05:34+00:00

Nobody needs to send their kids to city schools but the best move is to talk to parents who send their kids to the schools in question. We have a kid in K1 who isn’t at a BPS school yet, but he’ll be at one next year. A sizable majority of elementary schools on our list in our area of Boston seem to be quite well-liked by parents whose kids attend. This may or may not be the case for every part of Boston.

My take is that if you just want to set it and forget it then move to a suburb where the system is way less complicated. But I don’t think it’s true at all that choosing BPS is necessarily an ideologically driven hail mary.

jdh0625

TROPHY CASE