ND editorial roundup
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Excerpts from editorials in North Dakota daily newspapers over the past week
Texting while driving is one thing. The evidence on that is in, and the conclusionis hard to avoid: The practice is wildly dangerous, and authorities are right to be talking about a ban.
But Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., and others in Washington are jumping the gun by trying to ban the use of personal computers in airline cockpits. For his part, Franken reacted within hours of hearing that the pilots who flew 150 miles past their destination last week were distracted by their computers.
That's too early to be talking about changing federal law — especially considering that the feds haven't even finished their investigation into the incident.
The news of the overflight made Americans' jaws drop. What on Earth happened? How on Earth could it have happened?
The bad news is that the answers still are not clear. The good news is that they'll be clear very soon, thanks to the National Transportation Safety Board and its always-methodical investigations.
Until then, the news about the pilots and their computers is only the first word, not the last. It's based mainly interviews with the pilots, and that's just not enough information to be used to start passing laws.
First off, the pilots might be lying. More than a few other pilots think that's the case: Being engrossed by a laptop for a few minutes — maybe. But staring at the screen for an hour and 18 minutes, missing radio calls and utterly ignoring the awesome responsibility of conducting a successful flight?
And not just one pilot losing track in this way, but two?
No. "The closest comparison would be, say, to an operating-room team that got so interested in watching a football game on TV that they sliced open a patient but forgot to take out his appendix," wrote James Fallows of The Atlantic magazine, himself a private pilot.
Far more likely: The pilots fell asleep and now are sticking to what they think is a more-forgivable excuse, Fallows wrote.
Second, Franken and others' quick reaction ignores the vast differences between driving a car and flying a commercial plane. Franken made the comparison explicit: "We don't tolerate texting while driving, and we're certainly not standing for it while flying," he said.
But the reason we've started to ban texting while driving is that the practice is proven dangerous. Drivers operate on narrow strips of pavement and in the presence of other vehicles. They need their eyes on the road almost every second.
Flying a modern commercial aircraft above 10,000 feet isn't like that. By those altitudes, the autopilot has been engaged, and the human pilots monitor rather than fly the aircraft.
The issue now becomes overcoming boredom. To that end, activities such as light reading actually may make flights safer rather than less safe, wrote Hemant Bhana, a UND graduate and FAA contractor who worked as an airline pilot for 10 years.
"Of course, pilots should never read or chat at inappropriate times, nor should they become so engrossed in their activities that they forget to land at their destination," Bhana wrote in a Minnesota Public Radio op-ed.
"However, the benefits of keeping mentally stimulated and engaged through reading and chatting (at the appropriate time) far outweigh any risks."
Investigators may yet find that personal laptops are too distracting and should be banned from the cockpit at all times. But that evidence is not in, so the time for a ban is not now.
The sprawling Microsoft campus in south Fargo has become an appropriate symbol of Fargo's embrace of 21st-century progress. Often taken for granted it's been out there for several years the complex of modern buildings is one of the jewels in the company's high-tech crown andone of the most important businesses in North Dakota.
Those points were emphasized when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer visited the campus to participate in ceremonies marking completion of a $70 million expansion. Ballmer met with company staff, local and state business leaders and elected officials. His message regarding Microsoft's future in Fargo was about as positive as it gets.
He praised the work ethic of his employees, plugged the company's new products and emphasized the importance of the Fargo unit to the company. The local campus is the third-largest unit of Microsoft, employing about 1,500.
Ballmer's upbeat assessment of Microsoft's success in Fargo is important for several reasons. First, the company clearly has made a long-term commitment here. The expansion project represents a major investment in buildings and people. As the company grows, it's reasonable to expect more growth in Fargo.
Second, the presence of a world-class, cutting-edge technology company changes the way potential business investors view Fargo. Microsoft's commitment signals that Fargo is a good place to do business and to live. The city can point to several spinoff companies that are successful because of Microsoft. More will be created as Microsoft grows.
Third, the quality of Microsoft's work force underscores the area's reputation as a place of highly educated, highly motivated workers. Ballmer said, "We have some of our best people (in Fargo), we have some of our lowest turnover; it's an efficient, cost-effective place to do business."
Finally, the company's community service ethic comports nicely with Fargo's traditions. Microsoft employees do a lot of volunteer work, and the company is generous with its charitable donations.
Again, it's easy to miss the campus while speeding down Interstate 29. But since the company's beginnings as Great Plains Software, savvy observers haveseen its potential. Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains converted potential into substance. The expanded campus and ringing endorsement of the Fargo operation by Microsoft's CEO portend a bright future.
Minot Daily News
An independent panel created by the Obama administration announced last week that it (surprise!) disagrees with a plan pushed by former President George W. Bush to return to the moon with manned missions.
Instead, the panel members said, NASA should be focusing on new, and presumably more expensive, places to explore, such as nearby asteroids or one of the moons of Mars.
Whatever direction is taken, it's up to NASA officials to prove the billions of dollars being spent on the space program is worth it, especially at a time when those billions could be well-spent on a wide variety of items to help the citizens of this country.
We agree with at least some of the commission's report we see no urgent need to return to the moon. Been there, done that. If Mars is the ultimate objective in the next 20 years, then let's focus on that. Planning another manned mission to the moon only wastes precious time, technology and money.
What will we learn from sending a manned mission to the moon, or one of the many nearby asteroids? What valuable scientific information will mankind gather from such proposed billion-dollar jaunts, and will it be worth the billions invested? The days of launching a mission to do anything simply to say we did it are over or at least they should be. There's far too much money involved.
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Information from: Minot Daily News, http://www.minotdailynews.com
Having passenger service for Bismarck-Mandan connecting to Dickinson, Glendive, Billings and Seattle to the west and Fargo, Minneapolis and Chicago to the east would be grand. We had that with the North Coast Hiawatha until 1979. And the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 reconsiders the route. For nostalgic and convenience reasons, many North Dakotans along the southline would find renewed Amtrak service a boon.
Boon or not, it's a losing proposition, and Congress should not jump start the southern Amtrak route in North Dakota. There may be other routes worth restarting because they make good sense, but not the one running through Bismarck-Mandan.
The early numbers show the revenue from such a link reaching 51.8 percent of the cost. That's an operating loss of $31.1 million a year. And we're told that's a good thing. Oh, yes, then there's the estimated $1.04 billion capital investment to get things going.
And, where's our national debt?
There's a lot about passenger line service that makes sense in North Dakota. It should be more economic than all of us driving up and down the interstate highway with one person in each car and truck. For those without personal transportation, it gives options beyond the bus or airlines. It would be a great connector with major cities to the east and west. Bismarck-Mandan also have powerful historic links to the railroad, and not just coal trains. The transcontinental reach of the rail that passes through our two cities provided the initial reason for creating these communities at the juncture of the Missouri River and what was the Northern Pacific Railroad.
But then we already have east-west passenger service (is there any other kind) in the state. Amtrak now passes through Minot, a couple hours by car to the north. Given the high subsidy a line would require, doubling the access to Amtrak in North Dakota seems a stretch.
Improving Amtrak service in urban areas, where traffic is heavy and highways and airways clogged, make sense, even if a subsidy is required. That cost in sparsely populated areas doesn't trim itself down in per rider cost to anything near reasonableness.
William Thoms of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University has it right: "Man will step on Mars before someone steps off of a train in Bismarck."
And that's the way it should remain.
North Dakota is different compared to other states.
North Dakota's biggest metropolis, containing a sixth of the state's population, has a fraction of the people found in one of New York City's boroughs.
Here, the names Bobcats, Rhinos and Deere don't always refer to animals.
And residents of the upper Midwest consume odd-sounding dishes like knoephla, lefse and kuchen.
Outsiders can't help but stare.
Let them.
Domestic and international travelers are good for North Dakota. They spend money on gas, food, lodging and souvenirs, thereby stimulating the economy and creating or retaining jobs.
That's why the state's agritourism industry is so important.
The North Dakota Tourism Division, along with various attractions, have has partnered to give visitors a chance to see sites including a grape vineyard in Galesburg, a dairy farm in Edgeley and food preservation and rural living experiences in Langdon, according to Associated Press reports.
Urbanization means many people have lost touch with farms, officials said. Learning where food comes from can be just as exotic as skiing in Colorado or sightseeing in San Francisco.
Tour fees range from $5 to $120 — not a majorpart of any business, but surely, a supplement. Plus, the travelers spend money on more than tours. When a tourist attraction benefits, so does the surrounding community.
And the tourist attractions aren't limited to out-of-staters either. Local groups like day cares and senior citizen centers take advantage of them too. Even the locals have mentioned they learn things they didn't know before, said Randy Mehlhoff, director of the North Dakota State University Langdon Research Center.
Any way to create business is good, especially for businesses struggling through a bad economy or a family farm struggling through bad weather. Agribusiness is good for rural communities and its good for North Dakota.
We support efforts to increase tourism to our state.
