The way military capabilities are used today is remarkable. Last month the United States basically blew through the entire fixed air defense infrastructure of Libya with the vast majority of combat power being provided by a single submarine: USS Florida SSGN 728. If someone would have suggested to Ronald Reagan in 1986 that instead of a carrier air strike, “well [sic] defeat the vast majority of the Libyan defense infrastructure with a submarine,” that person would have been laughed out of the room and called a clown. And yet, that was only 25 years ago.
via Information Dissemination: Observing Modern MSO Squadron Operations.

Facebook alleges you can search status updates, but clearly they sunset things after some interval. There are all sorts of observations one could make about the ephemeral worldview Facebook assumes, and encourages, among its users to behave in this manner, but we all know that kids these days are falling apart and that our culture is dying, so I will not beat that horse further.

If one does want to be able to retrieve past information, it is easy to do using the ever-fabulous (and free) Google Reader.

First, head on over to Google Reader, and sign up for an account there if you do not already have one. What is Google Reader? It is a feed reader, or aggregator. What is that, you say? Here is a nice video of what this does and how it works. I do not know if a Google Reader account has any content in it when it is created, or if it is blank. Mine is subscribed to hundred of feeds and I chew through thousands of items a day, but I am way on the weird end of the bell curve.

When I set this up, Facebook made this much easier. They still enable one to subscribe to Notifications, Links, and Notes very easily, but status updates are harder than they used to be, and I apologize for that.

The easy link is gone from the obvious places one might look, but some googling turned up the answer here. I hope very much that the advice there will still work. Ready?

1. Follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?friends
2. Once you are on that page, look for the link with the title Friends’ Notes. It is at the bottom of the image to the right.
3. Right click on the Friends’ Notes link. If you are a single-button Mac user, that is a control-click (and go crazy and buy yourself a multi-button mouse; they are great).
4. Paste the link you just copied in some place where you can edit it – an email, Word, Notepad, Simplenote, etc.
5. It will look like this: https://www.facebook.com/feeds/friends_notes.php?id=xxxxxxxxx&key=yyyyyyyyyyyy&format=rss20 (except there will be other characters than the x and y series I have here).
6. Replace the five characters that spell notes, and replace them with status. Make sure the _ and the . on either side are still there.
7. Copy this modified link.
8. In Google Reader, click the “Add a subscription” button in the upper left.
9. Paste in the link from step 7.
10. Click the little add button to the right of the text field where you pasted in the link.
11. There is no step 11.

I suspect if you have never done this before, that can seem a little opaque, but I am sure you will get the hang of it quickly.

You can also add feeds (without having to edit anything) for your notes, your friends’ notes, notes from Pages to which you are subscribed, notifications, and your friends’ links. If anyone can find a feed for new photographs from your friends, please let me know.

Now that you have added this link to Google Reader, what next? Google updates, or refreshes, your feeds approximately every three hours. You can read them in Google Reader if you wish (I do), or you can ignore them and treat them solely as a repository for future searches. There will be no history in Google Reader before you begin the subscription, so searching is not very useful immediately, but once you have accumulated updates over time, it is a very quick and easy way to get back to an earlier discussion. Just type in a name or a keyword, click search, and then Google will show you a list of matching statuses which you can click to open them right up in Facebook where you can comment as you wish.

I hope this is a useful, not too frightfully nerdy suggestion for how to overcome Facebook’s amnesia about the past.

What’s the latest with Moynihan Station? Will it ever get done?

We’ve made great progress on Phase I. We want to turn this into a transportation project to start, and not a real estate project. So we have negotiated with our joint venture partners and the federal government for the initiation of Phase I, which is about to kick off in probably late October. And with successful completion of Phase I, a demonstration of that project is going forward. We’ve had good communications with Washington on funding and partnership for Phase II.

But the mistakes with the early Moynihan Station was that it was overburdened with costs and complexity, and it was clear we had to break it down into manageable construction projects and build the transportation benefits over time and then realize the large-scale real estate development afterward.

Prior posts on this topic here.

Today’s updates are modest, but worth noting…

1. An August 16 story from NY1 discussing the work performed on the station so far. Concolidation of postal space, a 30% increase in vertical transportation capacity to and from the platforms, the coversion of a loading dock into a taxi stand, etc. The article includes this serious understatement: “But the train hasn’t left the station yet, so to speak. Funding is not set for the more than $1 billion needed for the new transit hall. However, officials are confident real estate money for the private spaces in the new station will fill the hole.” It also includes this two minute video.
2. Crain’s reports that: “The state and the city have re-entered negotiations with Vornado Realty Trust and The Related Cos. over the sale of 1 million square feet of air rights associated with the new Moynihan Station, says the new president of the Moynihan Station Development Corp., Tim Gilchrist.” The suggestion follows that the commercial construction could begin and finish before the new Moynihan Station is ready for travelers. Funny how much faster the city moves when profits are at stake. Here is the rest of this piece:

The developers entered into a memorandum of understanding with the state in 2006 to develop the Farley Post Office into a new train station and to use the air rights to build an adjacent mixed-use development topped by a 67-story tower.

But the plan, including $110 million from the sale of the air rights, was never approved by the Public Authorities Control Board.

The recession forced the state to split the development into two phases. Eventually, federal stimulus funding provided the final $83 million needed to build the $267 million first phase, which entails linking the Farley building to expanded Penn Station platforms to give passengers another exit.

The initial construction contracts were approved Monday, and now attention is turning to funding the $1 billion second and final phase.

That’s where the sale of air rights comes in. The Farley building—which occupies the square block between 31st and 33rd streets and Eighth and Ninth avenues—comes with 2.5 million square feet of transferable air rights. While Related and Vornado have dibs on the first 1 million, the remaining 1.5 million square feet are up for grabs.

If an air-rights agreement with the two developers is reached, the 1 million-square-foot “Penn West” could begin rising before construction on the station’s first phase is completed in the next three to four years.

“We have a way to move forward, we just have to negotiate the pieces,” Gilchrist says. “I’d love to get money to build [the station].”

Time is ticking: The agreement that gives Related and Vornado exclusive development rights expires in 2012.

Plans for an expanded Penn Station received a boost today as the Public Authorities Control Board—a state-run board that previously blocked a different version of the project—approved a first phase for the plan, known as Moynihan Station.

With each additional approval (of which there are many), it’s actually looking like the project, which would eventually move Amtrak into the Corinthian column-lined Farley Post Office across Eighth Avenue, will see the start of construction. The long-sought expansion, which has been in the works for two decades, has become a symbol of the tortured progress of New York public works projects.

The approval today was for $267 million in infrastructure construction that would expand a concourse and complete ventilation work–most certainly not the sexiest or visually appealing part of the project. On its own, this probably isn’t worth $267 million in value for riders, as the spending rests on the assumption that the state will eventually find money for the rest of the project.

Back in 2006, the PACB, which is controlled jointly by the governor and the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly, blocked Governor Pataki’s plans for the project, as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stood in the way of the plan. Complete with the project’s narrative of ever-overreaching visions, the incoming Governor Spitzer then championed a larger version that involved moving Madison Square Garden to the post office, which more than a year later fell apart, due largely to the tremendous level of complication involved. (In retrospect, this plan approved today isn’t all that different from what the PACB was being asked to approve three-and-a-half years ago. Of course, that was before tens of millions of additional spending on consultants, borrowing costs, etc.)

This time, however, all the legislative leaders were on board with the spending, which was mostly federal money earmarked for the project. (Here’s the PACB agenda.) In the past year, state officials reworked the plan to be able to construct the project in chunks, as opposed to the prior strategy of waiting until all the various moving pieces fell into place. Should construction actually begin, it will be in large part due to this new strategy.

Still on the table, in theory: the sale of at least 1 million square feet of air rights over the Farley Building to a venture of developers Vornado and Related, which would build a tower across the street next to 1 Penn Plaza. (That, too, would need further approvals.)

Arguably as detailed as any Lego model I’ve seen. The accurate jet engine and the squadron markings make this perfect.

I provide the above summary to ensure that you, gentle reader, come to this week’s announcement with a full sense of the last few years’ developments as they relate to the Farley/Moynihan effort.

On Tuesday this week, New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced that the Moynihan Station project had received $83 million in grant money from Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER). Grrr. Further news emerged from the Friends of Moynihan Station group, run by the late Sen. Moynihan’s daughter, which explained what the grant covered: building two new entrances to Penn Station’s platforms from West of Eighth Avenue through the corners of the Farley Building; doubling the length and width of the West End Concourse; providing 13 new “vertical access points” (escalators, elevators and stairs) to the platforms; doubling the width of the 33rd Street Connector between Penn Station and the West End Concourse; and other critical infrastructure improvements including platform ventilation and catenary work.

In comments quoted in the New York Times, Sen. Schumer went further: “The money is there for phase one, and every major hurdle has been cleared. This was the last step, not the first step.”

Really, Chuck? This project has been percolating since 1994, has seen its scope go from roughly $450 million to $1.5 billion, and you believe that a grant that amounts to approximately 5% is the last step? The New York Department of Transportation has pledged $14 million to the project, and apparently the Port Authority has committed to some as well. There’s still going to be a lot of passing the hat ahead of them for these agencies to get from well under $200 million to the full $1,500 million for which they are aiming.

Still, Wednesday saw Governor Patterson charging the Empire State Development Corporation with managing the project, and heralding a signed memorandum of understanding with Amtrak president Joseph Boardman. Just what Amtrak and the state of New York understand was not clear from the Governor’s statement, but it seems to cover cooperation with the construction involved in Phase I.

I should not let my skepticism confuse the fundamental issue here, which is that I think this is a good project that should proceed. I just marvel at the pace, cost, and political nature of this effort. Yes, how could it be otherwise in the heart of New York city – I know. Yet doesn’t it take more nerve than you thought anyone actually had for Schumer to look at this tiny down payment and declare it the “last step?”

Here’s hoping he’s not just arrogant, but prescient, as well.

Not much new here if you follow this stuff, but helpful for someone getting up to speed.

As an aside, notice how little mention is made of Amtrak. Surprise, surprise. Also, very little talk of how small the current $8 billion is in relation to what would need to be spent by 2015 or 2020, given the scope of the plans Lafsky details.

Hat tip: Trains for America

Excellent commentary from the North New Jersey Record on the flaws in the current plan to build a new rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan. The article is here. Attentive foamer that I am, it came to my attention via the NARP blog here, and it’s worth noting their comments are worth reading as well.

I have covered the pros and the cons of this tunnel here before. While I respect the pro argument made by Don Phillips, I am inclined to think this current plan is a mistake and it is not at all clear that changes will be made in time to fix it. That is a shame.