Sleepless in Midland

Mardi Gras -- a big clean up job after it's over

My only visit to Mardi Gras happened long ago during the last century. This item titled Local photographer captures cleanup of French Quarter in the hours after Mardi Gras Day brought back a couple of memories.

The first memory was a circumstance that should have been frightening, but for the alcohol. After a nighttime parade the crowd was ready to move, and it did. However, any individual within the crowd had no control over which way he/she went. The crowd was packed to tightly that it moved as a single unit. And if you were in it, you went with it whether you wanted to or not.

One sight stood out. One guy in the crowd had somehow worked his way up. Not forward, but up. His head was two or three feet above the crowd, and the crowd was just moving him along. He seemed quite content, but he was actually quite helpless. After seeing that, it was easy to believe any news item about someone being trampled by a crowd. As noted, it should have been scary but for the sedating effect of alcohol.

Speaking of alcohol, Boones Farm wine was a popular drink among parade goers at the time, probably because it was cheap. The alcohol vendors were ready for Mardi Gras, and they sold plenty of it.

The second memory coming to mind was a stroll around the parade area the next morning before the cleaning crews arrived. Empty Boones Farm bottles were everywhere! Glass bottles filled the gutters as far as the eye could see. It was almost as if New Orleans had flooded, not with water, but with empty bottles. It was an amazing sight.

Anyway, happy Mardi Gras!

Traffic Jams in Texas -- Austin is the worst

Houstonpress.com is boasting about Houston's ranking as 2nd worst traffic congestion among large cities in Texas in Houston Traffic Is Not Nearly as Bad as You Think. Here's their explanation:

First, the rankings in Texas. Austin is actually the worst at 25 percent, Houston is second at 23 percent followed by DFW (18), San Antonio (17), McAllen (17) and El Paso (15). Houston, Dallas and San Antonio saw 1 percent decreases in 2018 over 2017. The other cities remained the same.

The numbers represent percentage of wasted commuter time because of traffic congestion and came from The TomTom Traffic Index -- measured with this methodology:

The congestion level percentages represent the measured amount of extra travel time experienced by drivers across the entire year. We start by establishing a baseline of travel times during uncongested, free flow conditions across each road segment in each city. We then analyze travel times across the entire year (24/7) for each city – and compare this information against free flow periods to derive extra travel time.

An overall congestion level of 36% means that the extra travel time is 36% more than an average trip would take during uncongested conditions. Average times are of actual taken trips, across every vehicle in the entire network, 24/7. Travel times in free-flow (uncongested) conditions are not based on speed limits but on actual trips made.

Alas, the fair city of Midland, Texas, failed to make the population cut for inclusion. But most locals will agree that the biggest time waster of all in this city is school zones.

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3:00 PM 8/26/2019

In secular Austin, TX, motel drawer provides Gideon's Bible and Willie Nelson picture book

On the road again --

On a recent motel stay in Austin, Texas, there was the standard, ever present, Gideon's Bible in a bedside drawer. No surprise there. But in another drawer was a picture book of Willie Nelson. I wouldn't call that a juxtaposition, but it was an interesting find.

So whether the guidance the weary traveler needed was spiritual or musical, it was there.

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2:13 PM 5/25/2018

The real heroes in the SW Airlines engine calamity are the trainers who teach pilots how to handle emergencies

The media told us about the shrapnel from the failed engine that pierced the 737's window and resulted in one passenger death. The media are hailing Captain Tammie Jo Shults as a hero. And that's a perfectly natural response. But I'm inclined to agree with the pilot when she said she was just doing her job.

From time to time one of the cable channels will broadcast a show featuring passenger plane pilot training. And the one I saw showed pilots flying a simulator in which the trainers threw at them every possible disaster they could think of. The pilots had been taught how to respond, and they were graded on how well they put that training into practice. Click here for a three minute Youtube video of a Southwest Airlines training simulator doing its job. In the featured segment one engine conks out while the plane is taking off.

Given all the bad things that can happen, the loss of one engine in a two-engine jetliner is not as catastrophic as it might seem. The 737 is supposed to be able to fly with only one engine, and in this latest in-flight-emergency, the plane and pilot did their jobs.

This blog post isn't intended to take away from the glory the pilot received or will receive. But she was really just doing what she was trained to do. Hopefully, the airline training programs will continue demanding top tier results from the pilots.

The real heroes are the trainers who taught Ms. Shults how to deal with the situation she found herself in.

Three cheers for those unsung heroes!

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11:03 AM 4/19/2018

Mars -- the captivating TV mini-series from Nat Geographic

I watched a recording of the final episode of Mars on Christmas morning, and somehow it seemed fitting to experience the possibility of discovery of new life on that particular holiday.

Rottentomatoes gave it warm reviews -- 63/58. So maybe the shows they have for comparison are more entertaining to their reviewers.

It's Elon Musk's vision of a manned mission to Mars, and most of the known risks are presented. The actual travel time between the two planets would be long, and thankfully, that happened off screen. And somehow they managed to overcome the cancer risk from radiation exposure during the trip.

Like that masterful real life crew of Apollo 13, the intrepid explorers portrayed in the TV series prevailed over the environment and the hardships it presented. Although, it's probably won't give too much away to point out that one of their members didn't adapt as well as the others.

All in all, it was a great TV mini-series. It doesn't make me want to volunteer for the expedition -- plenty of others have signed up already -- but it does make me hope to live long enough to see it happen. The U.S. couldn't afford it, but maybe a consortium of billionaires and 1st world countries could all chip in. Just like in the movie!

Musk is a master crony capitalist, and the series was a long commercial. It was made when the pundits were predicting a Clinton victory. So one has to wonder whether season two will be directed at Trump supporters. Would it matter? It's not too hard to imagine Trump supporting Musk's space endeavors, nor is it hard to imagine the "Trump" brand emblazoned on a compound on the red planet.

Arm chair vacationing -- visit Stone Mountain by computer

These days a sight seeing vacation can be taken right at our own desk with this internet thing. After all, when enough time passes all we have left are the photos, anyway. So cut to the chase and just look at photos.

Today's vacation spot is a carving in a rock wall larger than Mt. Rushmore. But this one is spectacularly un-politically correct. It's the Confederate Memorial Carving at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.

The first sculptor, Gutzon Borglum was hired in 1915, however, he didn't get far. And in 1925 he took off to go carve Mt. Rushmore. A second caver took over, but he didn't finish, either. Eventually, the state of Georgia bought the property and assigned the job to the Stone Mountain Memorial Association.

Walker Kirkland Hancock was given the job of finishing the sculpture. And in 1964 work resumed, this time with thermo-jet torch instead of dynamite. See a photo of one such torch here. The sculpture was finalized in 1972.

From the park website:

The largest high relief sculpture in the world, the Confederate Memorial Carving, depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The entire carved surface measures three-acres, larger than a football field and Mount Rushmore. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet to the mountain's surface.

The park website said that workers would take shelter from rain in a horse's ear. Now that's big art.

Bucket lists the easy way -- with Youtube

I didn't dream bucket list accomplishments could be so easy.

One of mine was to see a lava flow into the ocean. Done! Watch one right here.

Don't stop there. Move on to this one to watch some artificial lava being poured onto ice. It's got a scientific explanation and everything!

See how easy that was?

Next up, driving a Ferrari.

Most popular tourist destination in Texas -- San Antonio River Walk

The source is dated 2009, but it's likely to still be current. And it's hard to come up with a tourist destination that might beat the River Walk.

It wasn't always a nice river walk, though. It was once a dirty river prone to flooding. But in the 1930s an enterprising hotel owner convinced enough voters to raise property taxes to fund improvements along the river. Dams were built to control flooding, and eventually they got the river walk as it is today. Read more history here.

A lot of taxpayer money went into the project. One wonders whether it was a net benefit to taxpayers.

Via ijreview.com where you can find a U.S. map identifying each state's top destination.

Where's the swap for Sgt. Tahmooressi?

With a President so concerned about U.S. servicemen held prisoner in foreign countries, why no offer to swap for U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi? He's being held in a Mexican jail because he inadvertently crossed the border with guns in his vehicle.

Rand Paul gets the connection. He said jokingly:

“Why don’t we set up a trade? But this time, instead of five Taliban, how about five Democrats? I’m thinking John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, couldn’t we send them to Mexico?”

Very funny, but that misses the mark. Mexico doesn't want Kerry, Clinton, and Pelosi. And don't ask them what they do want. Obama just might give they back Texas with a bow and an apology. We'd have to fight for independence all over again.

Norway -- rich in oil rich, high in debt

Finding a buried treasure of black gold has been a blessing for some and a curse for others. For Norway, a blessing so far. But there are clouds on the horizon as politician promise more and more while using the Norwegian Oil Fund as collateral for more and more debt. See in Washington Times, VITENBERG: Norway’s shame: How a nation squandered its oil riches. Excerpt:

Some 50 years ago, Njord, the mythological Norsk god of wealth, smiled on the hardworking fishermen and lumberjacks, and presented Norway with the gift of oil. In financial terms, this was a handsome gift indeed, currently translated into a natural bounty worth $740 billion.

Successive Norwegian governments pledged to save this wealth for the welfare of future generations. Yet, half a century after this windfall began, questions increasingly arise of whether Norway’s handling of its oil wealth has even withstood the test of the past, much less the future. ...

First, the oil fund is a mathematical artifice. At three-quarters of a trillion dollars, the Norwegian Oil Fund appears to provide plenty for a country with scarcely 5 million citizens. Yet the country has accumulated a foreign debt that, at $657 billion, is almost as massive. Subtracting the debt from the fund’s $740 billion leaves a balance of only $83 billion. In other words, there is a treasure chest, but it is almost empty: Njord’s prize for future generations is only a little more than 10 percent of its putative value.

Actually, to be fair to the politicians, party-like-there's-no-tomorrow is more or less a trend among most governing bodies. So they are simply following the herd, if that can be claimed as a defense.

Sparks fly as these cars hit speed bump

Speed bumps are usually installed to slow traffic. And ideally a speed bump would accomplish two things, (1) slow traffic and (2) do that without damaging the vehicles crossing it. But to work as intended, the driver should know in advance that the speed bump is approaching.

Here we have a short video compilation of cars hitting a speed bump too fast, and sparks do fly. If the screen clock is accurate these scenes were all captured within a span of about 20 minutes.  Click the hyperlink to watch the Youtube video.

BTW, according to Bing Translator, "Внезапный лежачий полицейский в О/Зуево на ул.Северная" means "Sudden speed bumps in the Liverpool Street/North."

Via Twentytwowords.com.

Sparks fly as these cars hit speed bump

Speed bumps are usually installed to slow traffic. And ideally a speed bump would accomplish two things, (1) slow traffic and (2) do that without damaging the vehicles crossing it. But to work as intended, the driver should know in advance that the speed bump is approaching.

Here we have a short video compilation of cars hitting a speed bump too fast, and sparks do fly. If the screen clock is accurate these scenes were all captured within a span of about 20 minutes.  Click the hyperlink to watch the Youtube video.

BTW, according to Bing Translator, "Внезапный лежачий полицейский в О/Зуево на ул.Северная" means "Sudden speed bumps in the Liverpool Street/North."

Via Twentytwowords.com.

Carlsbad Caverns -- nice view plus relief from the heat!

The troglodytes have it made over surface dwellers on these hot summer days. With the surface temps exceeding 100ºF, the temperature down in Carlsbad Caverns stays at a pleasant 56º. Ahhh. And the view is spectacular!

Here are a few photos taken two days ago. There is no natural light whatsoever down there. All the light is from strategically placed incandescent bulbs which provide some color.

This panorama above consists of the same view taken without a flash, then with a flash. As you can see the natural color is rather drab.

Here are some shots from random places within the cavern. Note the handrail in the one on the left above. It provides a little perspective on the enormity of the place.

A few more.

Finally:

Reach, reach, reach! Just a little bit more! In another few thousand years the points might actually connect.

Socialist Sweden -- how do they do it?

Sometimes Sweden is offered up as an example of how socialism can work. And I'm probably not alone in wondering how they do it.

My own theory is that the innovators, inventors and type "A" entrepreneurs have fled for more favorable jurisdictions. And the remaining residents are quite satisfied as government dependents. But just to show that all isn't really so great there, here are a few anecdotal news reports from The Local, Swedish news in English:

Stats reveal 'surprisingly strong' Swedish economy.

Says there was 1.4% growth in economy in 4th quarter of 2012, but still only 0.8% for the full year. Maybe it is "surprisingly strong," but it's not that great by American standards, at least prior to 2008.

Russia mocks Sweden's lack of military might. "In January, Swedish Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Sverker Göransson said that Sweden’s scaled backed military leaves the country vulnerable. Sweden, he claimed, could only defend itself for one week if it came under attack."

America's future?

Use Patriot missiles to defend Sweden: minister.

They can't afford them. Maybe we can barter for some Ikea furniture.

Out-of-hours police turn away murder suspect. "Upon ringing the bell on the door shortly after 6pm, he was informed that the police station was closed. 'Closed? I'm suspected of murder and a wanted man – you guys really want to get ahold of me,' he said into the intercom. But instead of being let in to the station, he was instead directed to another police station. When he had made his way there, he was placed under arrest."

OK, enough fun. Here's a real story of individual courage.

Swedish golfer tees out spider venom.

The golfer who was bitten by a spider while playing in a qualifying tournament in Australia. The photo looks like a black widow spider, but they called it a redback. Anyway, she punctured the skin at the bite site with a golf tee and squeezed out as much poison as she could. Then she finished the game, but unfortunately she didn't make the cut.

Now that's stoicism in any language.

The beauty of a crater

The World Geography website has a picture spread of ten volcanic craters around the globe, and some of the photos are really stunning.

They're in the middle of cities, the ocean, and nowhere. See for yourself at 10 Unusual Volcanic Craters. Note the crater within a crater in number eight at Aogashima, Japan.

Who knew a hole in the ground could be so picturesque?

What's the best way to hop across a river? By trampoline!

Click for pics.

The river is the Seine. How's that for a tease?

Modern cars provide everything but green traffic lights

There was a time not too very long ago when things like seat belts and right side rear view mirrors were optional on cars. Now days it seems like every feature any engineer can think up gets put in, with a corresponding price hike, of course. For example, some vehicles have sensors that will set of an alarm if it's about to back into an object. Some have TV screens where the driver can see what's back there. Some have both. Then there's the device that uses radar to detect whether another car is too close and sets off an alarm, or it might even put its own foot on the brakes.

It's all well and good that we arrive safely, but what we need is some technology to make the trip go a little quicker. Add the time a typical traffic light is yellow and red, and that time will exceed the time it will be green, so the odds are that at any random time more often than not a traffic light won't be green. Many a driver has encountered a frustrating red light at each lighted intersection between the starting point and the destination making a short trip seem like an eternity.

A traffic light that is oblivious to the traffic is a waste of time and energy. Now wouldn't it be nice if the traffic light system could sense the traffic flow and adjust accordingly? And who among us hasn't experienced a situation in which we face a red light, but there is no cross traffic? Like the conscientious, law abiding people we are, we just sit at that red light simply because it's red. A smart system might change the red light to a green light in that situation.

The "green movement" should be all over this. Instead of exotics like windmills, solar systems, and electric vehicles, they should focus on more efficient ways to get from here to there.

Here in Midland, Texas, fossil fuel is our life blood. But the citizens still like to save at the gas pump. And most don't like wasting time because of a poorly timed traffic light system. Our city leaders are planning to raise our taxes just like they do every year around this time. And all the city department heads are probably eagerly awaiting that new money so they can grow their departments, buy new hardware and build new buildings. It's probably too much to hope for, but it certainly would be nice if they could take a few steps to help the traffic flow a little bit smoother.

But there's hope elsewhere. Kurzweilai.net tells us about an ambitious program being tested in Michigan which lets vehicles communicate not only with the traffic lights but with each other to avoid accidents. If it works, full implementation will cost a lot of money and take years.

A much simpler program could work traffic lights for a better traffic flow now.

A museum for fooling the eye

Few things provide as much vacation fun as a gag photo that stretches the perspective. Picture a tourist about to squeeze the Eiffel Tower between his thumb and forefinger or perhaps a woman kissing George Washington at Mount Rushmore.

There's a museum in Busan, South Korea, dedicated to optical illusions called the Trick Eye Museum. And the beauty is that visitors can have their pictures taken among the displays to create some unbelievable scenes. The photo below is my favorite. Look closely and you can see the corner of those painted walls.

Click to see more photos. Via NedHardy.com.

Video demonstrates how to sneak something through TSA's full body scanners

The theory is that the image the scanner takes is of the front and back of the terrorist. The terrorist simply puts his box cutters in a secret pocket on the side of his shirt. And when the photo is taken the box cutters appear black, but since the background also appears black, the box cutters are invisible.

Video here.

It would seem that if the TSA isn't doing it already, they'll take four images: front, back and both sides. Or maybe not. More here.

An Arab Beauty Pageant

From SaudiGazette.com.sa:

A rare beauty pageant organized in Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province, was intended to highlight the real beauty of a woman, which is her inner beauty. 22-year old Hashimiya Al-Radi, a nursing student, was chosen as the winner of the contest among 385 participants and was honored with the title ‘Miss Morals’. The two runners up were 17-year old Suhaila Al-Shawaf and 19-year old Zahra Salman Al-Awa. The crowning ceremony was held at King Abdullah National Banquet Hall in Al-Qatif, with an attendance of 500 women from all walks of life and all nationalities.

Apparently this isn't a joke.

Vienna 1950

This is another set of pics taken in 1950 by a neighbor whose husband was stationed in Germany while serving in the US Air Force Counter Intelligence Corps. These are from Vienna, and the writing on the backs describe what we are looking at.

This tank was supposed to be the first Russian tank that rolled into Vienna. After the war Vienna was divided into sectors, like Berlin. And this monument to Russian prowess implies this was in the Russian sector. The handwriting says there was propaganda on the building in the background, although it's impossible to read.

This is a photo a big Ferris wheel, and the handwriting says it's the same one that was in the 1949 movie The Third Man which was about international intrigue in post war Vienna. I recorded "The Third Man" from a TCM broadcast the other day and planned to have screen shot of the scene in which Joseph Cotton walks toward the Big Wheel and gestured at it to his adversary off screen. But unfortunately, the Windows 7 upgrade refuses to acknowledge the TV tuner that came with my old HP computer. So you'll have to trust me on that. Or you can watch it in this clip at Youtube.

Added later:  Here's that shot of Joseph Cotton in front of the Big Wheel in "The Third Man," captured from the above linked Youtube video.

 

Wiesbaden 1950

Armchair time travel.

A neighbor loaned me a box of old photos and souvenirs from the time she lived with her USAF CIC husband in Wiesbaden, Germany, after WWII.

Looks like she happened upon a building fire one day.

That's a very distinctive helmet the firefighters are wearing. War surplus, perhaps?

German lookie loos.

Check out that firetruck.

See Lunch on the RMS Queen Elizabeth - 1950, previously for more from the time travel box.

Car2go -- innovating car rental concept in Austin

Residents in Austin, Texas, have access to a neat transportation concept. It's Car2go, a car rental that let's the renter find a car on his/her smart phone parked somewhere within the operating area, pick up an itty bitty Daimler smart fortwo car, use it for a while, and leave it at another parking spot near the renter's destination.

The cost is $35 to register then $0.35 per minute of use up to a max of $12.99 per hour or $65.99 per day. Plus tax. And there's a charge of $0.45 for each mile driven over 150.

From their website:

Our network includes more than 300 of the coolest cars on the road, the innovative smart fortwo. At 41 miles-per-gallon hwy, these amazing vehicles are the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid or electric vehicles in the United States and the 3rd most fuel-efficient vehicle in the United States. You'll see plenty of these blue and white vehicles all over Austin, handy and waiting for members to access and drive away.

Drive where you want for as long as you want. Afterwards, simply park the car in any legal parking place in our operating area, or one of the many car2go parking spots in Austin, no need to return the car to the original pick-up location.

It being Austin, a natural assumption would be that taxpayer money is subsidizing the operation, but surprisingly, a word search for "car2go" in the Austin 2010 budget didn't produce any results. So maybe taxpayers aren't kicking in. Not bad.

Dragin' a wagon

Old guy: "Towing is like a getting married."

"Ya just gotta get hitched up right, and even when ya drag bottom, it'll hold together tight."

T-shirt guy: "Screw the philosophy, and just call a damn tow truck."

What was your first clue?

... that the motel had paper thin walls.

He lost his head in the Paleozone

He wasn't the first guy who lost his head over a woman.

Or maybe he was. Maybe he was.

(Photo taken at Alley Oop Park in Iraan.)

Lunch on the RMS Queen Elizabeth - 1950

Sauerkraut juice, thick ox tail soup, head cheese, and devilled veal kidneys. Yum! Doesn't that make your mouth water?

A glass of Bordeaux to go with it would cost 1s. Better get the whole bottle for 5s.

Those delectable selections were from the RMS Queen Elizabeth lunch menu for Tuesday, December 19, 1950. There were other items on the menu that looked tastier, but those just demanded attention -- the kind of food that could make one's eyes water before they made the mouth water. At least they didn't serve haggis.

Click lunch menu 12-19-1950 PDF to see it.

A neighbor's husband was stationed in Europe in 1950, and she brought back a box of photos and souvenirs which included a set of menus from the voyage home.

It's great fun going through old stuff, and there may be some old photos posted here in the near future. But those menus certainly do serve as a reminder that they just don't make good devilled veal kidneys like they used to.

Around the world in 62 seconds

Over three million sets of eyeballs have watched this video. So if you haven't seen it yet, it's a time lapse video of the Space Station orbiting the Earth at night.

At about the 20 second point notice the lightening storm at center right.

Youtube link. Via.

Weary deer stranded at sea, rescued by humans

This is one of those feel-good viral stories that is almost impossible to believe without finding the source. But sure enough, it appears to be authentic. In fact, the boat owner posted a link to a PDF scan of the newspaper article. And here's an HTML link to the JuneauEmpire.com article. And see the slide show here.

It happened in October of 2010 near Point Arden in Taku Inlet Southeast of Juneau, Alaska. Map. The captain and passengers of the Alaska Quest watched four unusual objects bobbing in the water. Article excerpt:

Satre slowed the boat, and the group began to watch the group of four juvenile Sitka black-tailed deer.

"They swam right toward the boat," he said. "Then, they started to circle the boat. They were looking up and looked like they needed help."

These were wild animals, mind you. But they were desperate and willing to let humans help them. The deer were too weak to climb into the boat, so the folks lassoed them and hauled them aboard.

More:

According to Kelly, the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals came willingly and once on the boat, collapsed with exhaustion. They were shivering, she said. A few could not hold up their heads. She didn't know if two would make it.

"They couldn't stand up on their own," Kelly said. "(And) they couldn't shake the water off their coats. We didn't want to touch them, but it was clear they were happy to be there. They probably would have crawled on board if they could have."

One possible explanation for why the deer got in that predicament was that a predator chased them into the water. Or maybe they took a swim to find a food source. In any event, once the boat reached shore the deer were set free.

There now. Wasn't that a feel good story?

Thanks Sis.

Travel taxes -- paying the government to spend the night

A few years ago Midland County and the city of Midland, Texas, implemented in a hotel/motel tax on people who have to spend the night here.

The reasons given to the public was that the revenue would be put to use to pull in more travelers. Results would be difficult to measure, however. But a more logical reason was that the people who spend the night in a hotel or motel in Midland would probably do so regardless of the travel tax. It was an easy tax to get passed because it was a tax on other people, people who would likely be barred from voting in local elections because of residency requirements.

So it's interesting to see an Economist article about travel taxes. They cite a report from Global Business Travel Association which lists, among other things, the five destination cities with the highest and lowest travel taxes, as follows:

The cities that impose the highest discriminatory travel taxes on travelers are:
1. Portland, OR
2. Boston, MA
3. Minneapolis, MN
4. New York, NY
5. Chicago, IL

Note the solidly Democrat Party leaning cities in the group with the highest tax. The Economist speculates that three of those cities are destinations for first time U.S. visitors, and a high tax probably wouldn't deter those travelers. Further:

The U.S. cities with the lowest discriminatory travel tax rates in central city locations are:
1. Orange County, CA
2. San Diego, CA
3. San Jose, CA
4. Burbank, CA
5. Ontario, CA

With the exception of one Mid-California city, they are in Southern California, an area generally considered to be more conservative than the rest of California. (Orange County isn't a city, but it's in there, nonetheless.) The taxes may already be high in California, but at least those jurisdictions don't discriminate against visitors.

Two addenda:

1. A portion of the Midland, Texas, travel tax receipts are doled out to favored businesses, like for example, the payment to the producers of a Christian rock concert -- see This Town Needs More Atheists -- demonstrating a lack of sensible uses for the money.

2. The GBTA also reports that business travel is increasing, a good sign, but so are travel prices, not such a good sign.