Don Graham

Road congestion imposes major financial, social, and environmental costs. One solution is the operation of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. This book outlines a method for dynamic pricing for HOT lanes based on non-linear programming (NLP) techniques, finite difference stochastic approximation, genetic algorithms, and simulated annealing stochastic algorithms, working within a cell transmission framework. The result is a solution for optimal flow and optimal toll to minimize total travel time and reduce congestion. ANOVA results are presented which show differences in the performance of the NLP algorithms in solving this problem and reducing travel time, and econometric forecasting methods utilizing vector autoregressive techniques are shown to successfully forecast demand. The book compares different optimization approachesIt presents case studies from around the world, such as the I-95 Express HOT Lane in Miami, USAApplications of Heuristic Algorithms to Optimal Road Congestion Pricing is ideal for transportation practitioners and researchers.

This book addresses the use of existing and emerging electronic payment technologies within a smart city in the context of the clear and proven value these systems have demonstrated in improving transportation. It addresses such question as How does the toll gantry work? How does it read the transponder tag and deduct the correct amount? How do cities harness the transaction data from mass transit to better meet the demand during peak hours? What can city planners do to make trip scheduling and payments seamless, so commuters can go from park-and-ride to mass transit to ride-share with a single payment platform? The volume is technical in nature and describes solid technical solutions to engineers and planners associated with smart cities initiatives. It is specifically designed to support smart city designers and engineers as they develop strategies that incorporate the latest payment system technologies. It will also be of value to private sector payment systems solution providers looking to deliver their products and services to smart cities. In addition, the book supplements technical perspectives with guidance on planning and implementation. For example, it defines procurement approaches for emerging technologies such as crypto currencies and block chain. Rounding out technical detail with advice on policy and the organizational framework required to underpin the technologies, the book delivers practical support to smart city technical practitioners. It further stands as an appropriate text for university courses associated with smart city planning, operations, and urban analytics. This book explores these questions and provides answers that a typical transportation planner can follow. It covers technology topics such as RFID (Radio Frequency ID), ETC (Electronic Toll collection), and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). The book also delves into how contactless payment (Near-Field) technologies can be used in a smart city. Blockchain is introduced as a platform that is suitable for solving the problem of payment segregation and shows how the entities in a smart city can work together to provide a seamless payment solution for riders across different modes of transport. The book also covers some theoretical concepts of congestion pricing which students at the university level can apply to city planning projects and research into smart cities. Several examples of US-based and international smart city implementations are provided in the closing chapters which demonstrate new, innovative smart city techniques for the transportation planner.

Road congestion imposes major financial, social, and environmental costs. One solution is the operation of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. This book outlines a method for dynamic pricing for HOT lanes based on non-linear programming (NLP) techniques, finite difference stochastic approximation, genetic algorithms, and simulated annealing stochastic algorithms, working within a cell transmission framework. The result is a solution for optimal flow and optimal toll to minimize total travel time and reduce congestion. ANOVA results are presented which show differences in the performance of the NLP algorithms in solving this problem and reducing travel time, and econometric forecasting methods utilizing vector autoregressive techniques are shown to successfully forecast demand. The book compares different optimization approachesIt presents case studies from around the world, such as the I-95 Express HOT Lane in Miami, USAApplications of Heuristic Algorithms to Optimal Road Congestion Pricing is ideal for transportation practitioners and researchers.

This book addresses the use of existing and emerging electronic payment technologies within a smart city in the context of the clear and proven value these systems have demonstrated in improving transportation. It addresses such question as How does the toll gantry work? How does it read the transponder tag and deduct the correct amount? How do cities harness the transaction data from mass transit to better meet the demand during peak hours? What can city planners do to make trip scheduling and payments seamless, so commuters can go from park-and-ride to mass transit to ride-share with a single payment platform? The volume is technical in nature and describes solid technical solutions to engineers and planners associated with smart cities initiatives. It is specifically designed to support smart city designers and engineers as they develop strategies that incorporate the latest payment system technologies. It will also be of value to private sector payment systems solution providers looking to deliver their products and services to smart cities. In addition, the book supplements technical perspectives with guidance on planning and implementation. For example, it defines procurement approaches for emerging technologies such as crypto currencies and block chain. Rounding out technical detail with advice on policy and the organizational framework required to underpin the technologies, the book delivers practical support to smart city technical practitioners. It further stands as an appropriate text for university courses associated with smart city planning, operations, and urban analytics. This book explores these questions and provides answers that a typical transportation planner can follow. It covers technology topics such as RFID (Radio Frequency ID), ETC (Electronic Toll collection), and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition). The book also delves into how contactless payment (Near-Field) technologies can be used in a smart city. Blockchain is introduced as a platform that is suitable for solving the problem of payment segregation and shows how the entities in a smart city can work together to provide a seamless payment solution for riders across different modes of transport. The book also covers some theoretical concepts of congestion pricing which students at the university level can apply to city planning projects and research into smart cities. Several examples of US-based and international smart city implementations are provided in the closing chapters which demonstrate new, innovative smart city techniques for the transportation planner.

Don Graham's Giant is a larger-than-life narrative of the making of the classic film, marking the rise of America as a superpower, the ascent of Hollywood celebrity, and the flowering of Texas culture as mythology. Featuring James Dean, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor, Giant is an epic film of fame and materialism, based around the discovery of oil at Spindletop and the establishment of the King Ranch of south Texas. Isolating his star cast in the wilds of West Texas, director George Stevens brought together a volatile mix of egos, insecurities, sexual proclivities, and talent. Stevens knew he was overwhelmed with Hudson's promiscuity, Taylor's high diva-dom, and Dean's egotistical eccentricity. Yet he coaxed performances out of them that made cinematic history, winning Stevens the Academy Award for Best Director and garnering nine other nominations, including a nomination for Best Actor for James Dean, who died before the film was finished. In this compelling and impeccably researched narrative history of the making of the film, Don Graham chronicles the stories of Stevens, whose trauma in World War II intensified his ambition to make films that would tell the story of America; Edna Ferber, a considerable literary celebrity, who meets her match in the imposing Robert Kleberg, proprietor of the vast King Ranch; and Glenn McCarthy, an American oil tycoon; and Errol Flynn lookalike with a taste for Hollywood. Drawing on archival sources Graham's Giant is a comprehensive depiction of the film's production showing readers how reality became fiction and fiction became cinema.

It's 1969, and America's youth is reveling in new freedoms. But for California native Don Graham, like so many other men his age, the future feels anything but unfettered. Once a staunch patriot, he does not want to kill or be killed in what he sees as the country's unjust war in Vietnam. Yet his options for avoiding the draft are few and frightening. Suddenly, the graduate study he's planned no longer yields deferment; he's married, but without the children that would also keep him at home. At 23, Don stands at a crossroads where every one of the signposts-pointing toward prison, exile, self-injury, or a far-away field of combat-foretells danger to body and soul. Ultimately, he reports for induction as ordered. Before he leaves for Vietnam a gifted intuitive gives him hope for a safe return; while there, another unexpected message foretells an imminent release from warfare. How can this be? Coming Home Whole is a firsthand look at the Vietnam War era, the conflicts that helped shape it at home and abroad, and the experiences of one man caught amid its contradictions. It is at once a wry, warm and wise coming-of-age story...a celebration of the two remarkable women at the heart of a young man's life...and a meditation on the way that unseen forces take us in directions we could never have imagined, in ways we can hardly believe.

John Steinbeck once famously wrote that "Texas is a state of mind." For those who know it well, however, the Lone Star State is more than one mind-set, more than a collection of clichÉs, more than a static stereotype. There are minds in Texas, Don Graham asserts, and some of the most important are the writers and filmmakers whose words and images have helped define the state to the nation, the world, and the people of Texas themselves. For many years, Graham has been critiquing Texas writers and films in the pages of Texas Monthly and other publications. In State of Minds, he brings together and updates essays he published between 1999 and 2009 to paint a unique, critical picture of Texas culture. In a strong personal voice-wry, humorous, and ironic-Graham offers his take on Texas literary giants ranging from J. Frank Dobie to Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy and on films such as The Alamo, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain. He locates the works he discusses in relation to time and place, showing how they sprang (or not) from the soil of Texas and thereby helped to define Texas culture for generations of readers and viewers-including his own younger self growing up on a farm in Collin County. Never shying from controversy and never dull, Graham's essays in State of Minds demolish the notion that "Texas culture" is an oxymoron.

From the earliest days of film, Texas and its colorful history offered promising story lines comprised of heroes, images, lore, and legend that filmmakers could return to again and again. And so they did in films about the Alamo, the Texas Rangers, the ubiquitous cowboy and the trail drives, big ranchers, and bigger wildcatters. With the advent of the Talkies, Texas movies continued to be a staple of Hollywood backlot productions, mainly in the form of B Westerns. In the golden age of Texas cinema - dating from the end of World War II to the assassination of JFK - the Western continued to be the predominant genre. A roll call of the most notable Texas movies would include ""Red River"", ""Giant"" (probably the single most influential Texas movie of all), ""The Searchers"", ""Hud"", and ""The Last Picture Show"". The reader is invited to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear as well as to consider the most recent cinematic efforts to capture one of the nation's most mythologized places. After a brief overview of Texas in the movies, the book offers detailed commentary on the most important, the most interesting, or, in a few cases, the most wretched films about the Lone Star State.

"Kings of Texas is a fresh and very welcome history of the great King Ranch. It’s concise but thorough, crisply written, meticulous, and very readable. It should find a wide audience." –Larry McMurtry Kings of Texas is the sprawling saga of the larger-than-life characters who founded, built, and expanded the most famous cattle ranch in American history. Renowned Texas scholar, writer, and storyteller Don Graham weaves a compelling multigenerational family drama into the complex social history of South Texas. The result is an intricate tapestry laced with thrilling tales drawn from decades of conflict arising from the Mexican War, the Civil War, and countless skirmishes between Texas Rangers and border bandits. From humble frontier jacales to the sleek offices of a multinational corporation, Kings of Texas tells an unforgettable story of vision, violence, greed, loyalty, and betrayal, set on a stage as vast as the American dream. "A crisp history of the King Ranch . . . a good read about an era long gone." –Boston Globe "This book is about the King Ranch, but it is about much more than that. A compelling chronicle of war, peace, love, betrayal, birth, and death in the region where the Texas-Mexico border blurs in the haze of the Wild Horse Desert, it is also an intriguing detective story with links to the present–and a first-rate read." –H. W. Brands, author of The Age of Gold and the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist The First American

Praise for KINGS OF TEXAS ""Kings of Texas is a fresh and very welcome history of the great King Ranch. It's concise but thorough, crisply written, meticulous, and very readable. It should find a wide audience.""-Larry McMurtry, author of Sin Killer and the Pulitzer Prize--winning Lonesome Dove ""This book is about the King Ranch, but it is about much more than that. A compelling chronicle of war, peace, love, betrayal, birth, and death in the region where the Texas-Mexico border blurs in the haze of the Wild Horse Desert, it is also an intriguing detective story with links to the present-and a first-rate read.""-H. W. Brands, author of The Age of Gold and the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist The First American

A sampling of Texas literature and movies in pieces.