VISIONS OF THE FUTURE. Blaster's Blog has some observations about the State of the Union address lacking an uplifting vision, something along the lines of the 1939 New York World's Fair or perhaps President Kennedy's deadline for a round trip to the Moon. He also has some eerily prescient comments about the obsolescence of the Space Shuttle. But I wish to focus on one of the items in his tribute to the World's Fair, the "Raymond Loewy designed locomotive."

Raymond Loewy only made it look fast. The design staff at the Pennsylvania Railroad designed it to go fast. The Interstate Commerce Commission gave its operators the railway equivalent of a speeding ticket. And scaled down, it is an absolutely awesome desk ornament, when it's not being tweaked to run.