A couple of years ago, after a big antiwar demonstration in New York, my brother pointed out that one of the supporters of Lyndon LaRouche, the fringe political figure, had the best sign: "Mag Lev Not War." Great line, I thought. And then, early this summer, came word that Congress had allocated $45 million in seed money to the California-Nevada Interstate Maglev Project. News reports said that this futuristic train would hurtle through the desert at a top speed of 310 miles an hour, connecting Las Vegas and Disneyland. Again, like the LaRouche protest poster, it seemed like a pretty good joke. What's next? Maglev service linking Branson, Missouri, with Dollywood and the Grand Ole Opry? Magnetic levitation, which involves running high-speed trains on a cushion of electromagnetic attraction or repulsion (depending on the system), is one of those futuristic ideas that have never quite arrived.
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机译：几年前，在纽约举行了一次大规模的反战示威之后，我的兄弟指出，边缘政治人物林登·拉鲁什（Lyndon LaRouche）的支持者中最好的标志是：“ Mag Lev Not War”。大行，我想。然后，在今年夏天初，有消息传出，国会已为加利福尼亚-内华达州际磁悬浮项目拨款4500万美元。新闻报道说，这辆未来派火车将以每小时310英里的最高速度穿越沙漠，连接拉斯维加斯和迪斯尼乐园。同样，就像拉鲁什抗议海报一样，这似乎是个很好的笑话。下一步是什么？磁悬浮列车将密苏里州布兰森与Dollywood和Grand Ole Opry相连？磁悬浮涉及在电磁吸引或排斥（取决于系统）的缓冲层上运行高速列车，是从未真正到来的那些未来派思想之一。
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